Possibilities  of  the 
negro  in  Symposium 


REV.  C.  E.  DOWMAN,  D.D., 
HON.  JOHN  TEMPLE  GRAVES, 

HENRY  W.  GRADY, 

EX-GOVERNOR  W.  J.  NORTHEN, 

BISHOP  WARREN  A.  CANDLER,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

BISHOP  H.  M.  TURNER,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

BISHOP  L.  H.  HOLSEY,  D.D., 

RICHARD  H.  EDMONDS, 

WILLIS  B.  PARKS,  M.D. 


JI  Solution  of  the  negro  Problem 

Psychologically  Considered 
Cbe  negro  not  "fl  Beast." 


The  Franklin  Printing  and  Publishing  Company 
ATLANTA,  QA. 


COPYRIGHT,  1904, 
BY  W.  B.  PARKS. 


CONTENTS. 


FOREWORD. — Rev.  C.  E.   Dowman,  D.D.,  Ex-President 
Emory  College 1 

CHICAGO  UNIVERSITY  SPEECH — "THE   PROBLEM   OP  THE 

RACES." — Hon.  John  Temple  Graves 5 

'*  BOSTON  BANQUET  SPEECH." — Henry  W.  Grady 35 

"  BUT  WHAT  OF  THE  NEGRO  ? — Henry  W.  Grady 56 

"  WHAT  OF  THE  NEGRO  ?"  — Henry  W.  Grady 59 

"  AGED  Ex- SLAVES  GATHER  AT  HOME  OF  OLD  MASTER." — 
Robert  Timmons 69 

"  RACES  IN  HARMONY;  SOUTH  SAFE  AS  HOME." — Ex-Gov- 
ernor W.  J.  Northen 74 

"  MUST  PUT  DOWN  THE  MOB  OR  BE  PUT  DOWN  BY  IT." — 
Bishop  Warren  A.  Candler,  D.D.,  LL.D 84 

"RACES  MUST  SEPARATE." — Bishop  H.  M.  Turner,  D.D., 
LL.D 90 

"  RACE  SEGREGATION."— Bishop  L.  H.  Holsey,  D.D 99 

"BURDEN  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM." — Richard  H.  Ed- 
monds    120 

"  A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM  PSYCHOLOGICALLY 
CONSIDERED;  THE  NEGRO  NOT  A  BEAST." — Willis  B. 
Parks,  M.D 128 


2201138 


FOREWORD. 


BY  CHAS.  E.  BOWMAN,  D.D., 
Ex-President  Emory  College,  Oxford. 


The  negro  is  with  us,  much  has  been  said  and  writ- 
ten, but  the  last  word  has  not  yet  been  spoken,  for 
"nothing  is  settled,  till  it  is  settled  right."  After  the 
strife  of  words  and  the  ebullition  of  passion,  right  and 
truth  will  remain.  No  doubt,  much  that  was  unwise 
and  untrue  has  been  said.  Men  have  discussed  this 
question  from  the  viewpoint  of  prejudice,  passion,  and 
personal  interest  as  well  as  from  sincere,  though  often 
misdirected  philanthropy.  But  many  of  the  highest 
minds  have  carefully  considered  this  problem ;  some 
are  still  seeking  for  a  solution ;  others  have  thought 
it  through,  and  from  their  premises  have  reached  a 
conclusion. 

Dr.  Willis  B.  Parks,  the  author  of  the  essay  which 
closes  this  volume,  has  rendered  a  service  to  the  think- 
ing public  by  collecting  and  putting  in  permanent  form 
the  mature  thought  of  some  of  the  leading  men  of  both 
races,  as  well  as  by  his  own  contribution  to  the  dis- 
cussion of  this  question.  The  study  of  the  negro  from 
a  psychological  standpoint,  gives  promise  of  a  better 
understanding  of  the  peculiarities  of  his  character  and 
conduct  that  have  been  difficult  to  explain,  and  fur- 
nishes valuable  suggestions  of  more  intelligent  meth- 
ods for  his  improvement.  The  author,  with  scientific 
candor  and  firmness,  seeks  to  check  any  tendency  to- 
ward dehumanizing  the  negro  by  showing  from  the 
application  of  the  principles  of  psychology  that  he  is 
"not  a  beast,"  but  a  man. 


2  FOREWORD. 

The  eloquent  and  big-hearted  Henry  W.  Grady,  and 
the  concise  and  brilliant  John  Temple  Graves,  need 
no  introduction  or  commendation.  The  pure  and  pa- 
triotic William  J.  Northen  enjoys  the  confidence  of 
all  races  and  sections. 

The  masterful  bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  South,  Warren  A.  Candler,  pleads  for  justice 
toward  the  negro  as  opposed  to  the  mob.  The  ear- 
nest and  observant  bishop  of  the  African  Methodist 
Church,  Henry  M.  Turner,  agrees  that  this  question 
can  only  be  settled  by  the  separation  of  the  races,  and 
Rev.  L.  H.  Holsey,  D.D.,  the  eloquent  and  big- 
hearted  bishop  of  the  Colored  M.  E.  Church,  pleads 
for  the  segregation  of  the  race  in  some  portion  of  our 
national  domain. 

Richard  H.  Edmonds,  editor  of  the  "Manufacturers' 
Record,"  an  astute  man  of  business,  holds  that  if  wily 
politicians  and  sentimental  philanthropists  will  let  this 
problem  alone,  the  two  races  will  probably  work  out 
its  solution. 

Many  say  they  are  tired  of  this  discussion — but  cer- 
tain things  are  true :  The  negro  is  here,  and  here  to 
stay,  and  so  long  as  there  is  the  want  of  perfect  ad- 
justment between  him  and  the  white  race,  there  will 
be  the  problem,  and  so  long  as  there  is  a  problem,  there 
will  be  a  discussion. 

The  position  of  the  negro  race  is  more  critical  now 
than  at  any  former  period  of  its  history.  During  the 
time  immediately  succeeding  emancipation,  there  was 
a  kindly  and  sympathetic  relation  between  the  white 
people  of  the  South  and  their  former  slaves.  But 
with  the  passing  of  the  old  masters  and  the  old  serv- 
ants, with  the  coming  of  generations  who  know  noth- 
ing of  the  sentiments  of  affection  and  gratitude  grow- 
ing out  of  the  relations  of  domestic  slavery,  and  who 
have  been  reared  under  the  influence  of  passion  on 


FOREWORD.  3 

the  one  side  and  suspicion  on  the  other,  it  was  inevi- 
table that  the  races  should  drift  apart. 

The  Southern  white  man  has  easily  lost  confidence 
in  the  negro.  The  increase  of  crime,  the  comparative 
failure  of  education,  the  frequent  divorcement  of  re- 
ligion from  morality,  the  menace  to  the  safety  of  the 
home  and  of  innocent  women  from  the  rapist  have 
turned  the  feelings  of  many  white  men  from  sym- 
pathetic helpfulness  to  strained  toleration. 

It  would  be  putting-  the  case  very  mildly  to  say  that 
the  negro's  most  enthusiastic  friends  in  the  North  are 
disappointed  in  him.  His  moral  and  social  progress 
has  not  been  what  they  expected  as  a  result  of  their 
investment  of  money  and  help.  The  laboring  classes 
of  the  North  will  not  admit  him.  The  doors  of  social 
life  are  closed  against  him.  Since  the  Southern  States 
have,  as  a  matter  of  self-preservation,  practically  elimi- 
nated him  from  politics,  whose  affection  for  "the  man 
and  brother"  was  prompted  by  self-interest,  has  no 
further  use  for  him. 

With  the  North  indifferent  and  the  South  unsympa- 
thetic, the  negro  would  be  crushed  between  the  upper 
and  the  nether  millstone.  But  his  future  is  in  his  own 
hands.  Content  with  his  civil  liberty,  enjoying  educa- 
tional advantages  at  the  cost  of  his  white  neighbors, 
with  a  fair  field  for  his  industry,  not  excluded  from 
the  ranks  of  skilled  labor,  wjth  the  fields,  the  forests, 
the  mines  of  the  South,  begging1  for  him  with  the 
monopoly  of  domestic  service,  he  is  in  position  to 
make  rapid  progress  in  the  accumulation  of  property, 
the  building-  of  homes,  and  in  the  elevation  of  his  so- 
cial condition. 

The  South  will  not  have  him  as  a  social  equal  nor 
as  a  political  master,  but  she  needs  him,  and  wants  him 
as  a  powerful  factor  in  her  industrial  prosperity.  His 
labor  augments  her  wealth,  his  growing  demand  for 


4  FOREWORD. 

the  necessity  of  civilized  life  makes  a  market  for  her 
products,  his  increase  of  population  gives  proportion- 
ate influence  in  national  legislation. 

Bishop  Galloway,  one  of  the  most  eloquent  preach- 
ers of  the  Methodist  church,  said  in  a  public  address 
a  few  months  ago,  that  when  the  negro  left  the  South 
he  would  go  with  him,  and  the  utterance  was  received 
with  enthusiastic  applause. 

,  The  South  is  willing  to  give  the  negro  a  chance.  As 
the  ward  of  the  nation  he  has  been  spoiled ;  as  the 
football  of  demagogues  he  has  been  corrupted.  As 
the  pet  of  sentimental  philanthropists  he  has  been 
placed  in  a  false  and  dangerous  position.  As  the  prey 
of  the  avaricious,  his  vices  have  been  fostered  for  their 
gain. 

What  the  future  has  for  him  depends  on  himself. 
The  sky  is  clearing.  The  views  of  all  sections  and 
parties  are  coming  nearer  together.  The  wisest  men 
of  the  negro  race  are  recognizing  the  time  basis  of  his 
salvation.  His  best  friends,  who  are  among  the  white 
people  of  the  South,  are  ready  to  help  him  under  prac- 
tical ways. 

What  shall  we  do  with  him  shall  no  longer  be  dis- 
cussed. With  equality  before  the  law,  with  equity  in 
business,  with  sympathy  in  all  his  efforts  to  better  his 
condition  on  all  proper  lines,  instead  of  being  a 
menace  to  our  safety,  a  disturbing  element  in  our 
politics,  and  a  peril  to  himself,  he  may  become  a  race 
unit  in  our  great  cosmopolitan  national  life,  "sepa- 
rate as  the  billows,  but  not  as  the  sea,"  and  under  the 
benign  influence  of  the  gospel  of  the  Son  of  man,  our 
civilization  may  show  the  possibility  of  which  has  been 
declared  impossible — a  superior  and  an  inferior  race 
living  and  working  together  in  true  harmony  and  co- 
operation. 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  RACES. 


BY  JOHN  TEMPLE  CRAVES. 


(Chicago  University  Speech.) 

Mr.  President,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen: 

Permit  me  in  the  beginning  to  acknowledge  the 
courtesy  which  gives  me  access  to  a  platform  so  noble 
and  to  an  audience  so  distinguished  as  this. 

All  sections  of  our  common  country  pay  tribute  to 
the  merit  and  equipment  of  this  splendid  University. 
Its  work  is  playing  a  mighty  part  in  the  educational 
uplift  of  the  times.  Its  record  has  been  notable  among 
the  forces  which  have  given  us  a  reunited  country. 
The  State  and  the  section  from  which  I  come  have 
made  their  yearly  vital  contribution  to  its  student- 
roll,  and  the  superb  beneficence  of  the  founder,  joined 
to  the  noble  liberality  of  citizens  of  Chicago,  and  to 
the  consecrated  talent  and  attainments  of  its  faculty, 
have  made  an  institution  so  virile  in  life,  so  compre- 
hensive in  character,  and  so  national  in  scope  that  it 
has  come,  while  yet  in  early  youth,  to  be  the  alma 
mater  of  the  sections  and  the  pride  of  the  republic. 

Fortunate  am  I,  and  happy,  in  that  I  bring  the  con- 
victions of  this  hour  to  a  platform  so  free,  and  to  an 
atmosphere  so  impartial.  Questions  of  abstract  policy 
— problems  of  humanity — bearing  a  hint  of  section  or 
a  complication  of  party  are  not  for  the  ears  of  faction 
or  for  the  passions  of  politics.  Upon  the  fierce  and 
heated  bosom  of  established  prejudice  the  cold  stream 
of  reason  falls  too  frequently  to  steam  and  hissing,  and 

(5) 


6          THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  RACES. 

men  who  have  convictions  that  are  rather  definite 
than  popular,  may  thank  God  for  the  calmer  air  of 
universities,  and  for  the  clear  and  unbiased  minds  of 
students  seeking  truth.  It  is  here,  and  here  only,  that 
problems  of  duty  and  of  destiny  can  find  a  fair  hear- 
ing and  a  free  solution  in  the  tranquil  temper  and  un- 
fettered vision  of  republican  youth. 

Upon  this  dear  presumption  I  hasten  to  my  work. 

The  problem  which  I  bring  to  you  to-day  is  yours 
as  well  as  mine.  Whoever  you  are,  and  from  what- 
ever section  you  come,  the  problem  is  yours — inherited 
from  the  fathers  and  handed  down  to  the  sons — with 
complications  increasing  so  rapidly,  and  difficulties 
multiplying  so  fast  that  every  instinct  of  prudence, 
and  every  suggestion  of  safety  plead  for  its  prompt 
and  full  consideration,  while  it  may  yet  be  solved — a 
problem  for  the  whole  country,  because  it  can  not  be 
settled  by  a  section ;  and  a  problem  for  this  generation, 
because  in  this  generation  it  must  inevitably  reach  its 
crisis  and  advance  in  promise  or  decline  in  evil  pre- 
sage to  its  conclusion. 

The  thinkers  of  the  Old  World,  from  Gladstone  and 
Bismarck,  through  James  Bryce  and  Arthur  Balfour, 
to  Chamberlain  and  Crispi,  viewing  our  country  from 
the  vantage  ground  of  distance,  have  with  one  voice 
proclaimed  this  the  first  and  foremost  problem  of  our 
national  life. 

The  thinkers  of  our  own  world,  who  see  the  prob- 
lem clearly,  are  appalled  at  the  comprehensive  danger 
of  its  elements,  and  amazed  at  the  apathy  of  their 
countrymen  toward  it. 

Will  you  bear  with  me,  then,  while  I  state  this  prob- 
lem briefly  and  as  fairly  as  I  can? 

The  Civil  War  of  the  sixties  was  the  tragedy  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  Its  real  cause  dated  back  to  con- 
stitutional constructions,  and  to  the  irrepressible  con- 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  RACES.          7 

flict  over  the  nature  of  the  compact  framed  by  the 
fathers.  Its  provoking-  incident,  its  precipitating 
cause,  was  slavery. 

A  republic  of  white  men,  living  in  a  country  de- 
veloped and  established  by  sturdy  colonists  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race,  prospering  under  a  constitution 
framed  by  white  men — for  the  author  of  the  Declara- 
tion was  a  slaveholder — flourishing  magnificently  un- 
der institutions  molded  by  their  united  brains,  ce- 
mented by  their  common  blood,  and  sanctified  by  their 
common  patriotism — fell  at  outs  over  a  black  man 
brought  from  savage  Africa  and  sold  from  trading 
ships  to  bondage  and  slavery,  first  in  Massachusetts, 
and  afterwards  in  the  South.  We  do  not  halt  here  to 
wrangle  over  the  mooted  responsibility  of  his  bring- 
ing, or  the  causes  of  his  subsequent  concentration  in 
one  section  of  the  country.  He  came,  he  drifted,  and 
he  divided  us.  Agitators,  sincere  but  passionate, 
raised  the  question  of  his  liberty.  The  sections  divided 
in  interest  and  sentiment  upon  the  issue,  and  over  his 
black  body  brethren  of  a  white  race  and  of  a  common 
glorious  heritage  went  to  war. 

Of  equal  valor,  but  of  unequal  numbers,  the  men 
of  the  North  and  the  men  of  the  South  grappled  for 
four  years  at  each  other's  throats ;  and  for  this  black 
man  of  Africa  the  white  men  of  America  sacrificed  a 
million  heroic  lives  and  spent  $12,000,000,000  of  their 
money. 

Whether  it  were  worth  the  colossal  sacrifice,  his- 
tory, and  one  hundred  thousand  broken  homes,  must 
in  time  declare.  And  whether  the  sacrifice  were  vain 
and  profitless,  history  and  the  unsolved  problem  must 
also  say. 

From  the  unequal  contest  one  section  emerged  vic- 
torious, and  the  other  section  lingered  solemn  and 
broken  in  defeat. 


8          THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  RACES. 

The  first  act  of  the  victor  was  to  free  the  slaves. 
The  next  act  of  the  victor  was  to  make  the  black  man, 
just  now  a  slave,  a  citizen  and  the  equal  of  his  master. 
There  were  four  million  black  men  then.  There  are 
nine  million  now,  and  seven  million  in  the  South. 

Here,  then,  the  equations  start : 

Two  opposite,  unequal,  and  antagonistic  races  are 
set  side  by  side  for  government  and  destiny.  One  of 
these,  by  the  record,  is  the  strongest  race  on  earth ; 
the  other,  by  the  record,  is  the  weakest  race  on  earth. 
One,  a  race  whose  achievements  make,  in  large  part, 
the  history  of  the  world ;  the  other,  a  race  which,  in 
all  its  annals,  has  written  no  history,  built  no  monu- 
ments, made  no  books,  and  recorded  no  achievement, 
and  whose  only  progress  has  been  from  contact  with 
the  stronger  race.  One,  a  race,  proud,  progressive, 
dominant,  and  historically  free ;  the  other,  a  race  that 
came  out  of  centuries  of  savagery  into  centuries  of 
slavery,  and  was  transplanted  in  one  tropical  and  un- 
natural night  from  barbarism  and  slavery  into  liberty 
and  full  equality.  One,  a  live,  vital,  twentieth-century 
race,  pulsing  the  hope  and  progress  of  the  world ;  the 
other,  a  race  without  a  record,  undeveloped,  untrained, 
but  lately  slaves,  and  at  the  utmost  a  seventh-century 
civilization. 

There  they  are — master  and  slave,  civilized  and 
half-civilized,  strong  and  weak,  conquering  and  servile, 
twentieth-century  and  seventh-century —  thirteen  hun- 
dred years  apart — set  by  a  strange  and  incomprehen- 
sible edict  of  statesmanship  or  of  passion,  set  by  the 
constitution  and  the  law,  the  weakest  race  on  earth 
and  the  strongest  race  on  earth,  side  by  side,  on  equal 
terms  to  bear  an  equal  part  in  the  conduct  and  re- 
sponsibility of  the  greatest  government  the  world  ever 
saw! 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  RACES.          9 

It  was  an  experiment  without  a  precedent  in  history 
and  without  a  promise  in  the  annals  of  man. 

Impracticable  in  abstract  form,  the  proposition  is 
rendered  impossible  by  its  complications.  The  mas- 
ter race  keenly  resents  the  sudden  elevation  and  the 
forced  equality  of  their  slaves.  The  victorious  section 
eagerly  demands  the  trial,  and  desires  the  success  of 
its  experiment.  The  master  race,  from  long-  contact 
and  close  association,  carries  the  ineradicable  convic- 
tion of  the  inherent  and  incurable  inferiority  and  in- 
capacity of  the  black  man.  The  victor  section,  rea- 
soning from  abstract  philanthropy  at  the  distance  of  a 
thousand  miles,  cherishes  a  fixed  faith  in  the  unity 
of  race  and  the  equality  of  man.  Sectional  jealousies 
compass  the  experiment  with  bitterness.  Partisan 
politics  complicate  it  with  selfish  schemes.  Frequent 
crimes  and  recurring  violence  distort  it  with  passion. 
And  behind  it  all,  openly  confessed  in  one  section,  and 
only  half  denied  in  the  other  section,  there  lives  and 
breathes  in  both  races  and  in  all  sections,  the  deep,  tin- 
circumscribed,  and  apparently  ineradicable  prejudice  of 
opposite  races,  which  renders  union  and  sympathy  and 
full  co-operation  hopeless  and  out  of  the  question  for- 
ever. 

So  that  the  problem  is  one  of  irreconcilable  ele- 
ments. It  is  one  of  impossible  conditions.  Stated  in 
a  sentence,  this  is  the  problem :  How  the  strongest  of 
races  and  the  weakest  of  races,  thirteen  hundred  years 
apart  in  civilization,  unequal  in  history  and  develop- 
ment, incongruous,  unassimilable  and  inherently  an- 
tagonistic, tossed  between  party  schemes  and  sectional 
jealousies,  irritated  by  racial  conflicts  and  misled  by 
mistaken  philanthropy,  can  live  on  equal  terms  under 
exactly  the  same  laws,  and  share  on  equal  terms  in 
the  same  government — when  no  other  races,  opposite 
and  antagonistic,  have  ever  shared,  in  peace  and  tran- 


10        THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  RACES. 

quility,  since  the  world  began,  any  country  or  any 
government  created  by  God  or  fashioned  by  man. 

This  is  the  question  that  the  times  are  called  to  an- 
swer. This  is  the  riddle  that  the  twentieth  century  is 
asked  to  read.  This  is  the  experiment  that  the  tem- 
porizing- statesmanship  of  a  civil  revolution  has  forced 
upon  the  age. 

The  statement  of  the  proposition  carries  its  condem- 
nation, and  the  equations  must  be  changed  before  the 
problem  can  be  solved. 

The  experiment  has  had  thirty-eight  years  of  trial, 
backed  by  the  power  of  the  federal  government  and 
by  the  sympathy  of  the  world.  It  has  failed.  From 
the  beginning  to  the  hour  that  holds  us,  it  has  failed. 
The  races  are  wider  apart  and  more  antagonistic  than 
they  were  in  1865.  There  is  less  of  sympathy  and 
more  of  tension  than  the  races  have  known  since  the 
terrible  days  of  reconstruction  made  chaos  in  the 
South.  The  Fifteenth  Amendment  is  practically  re- 
pealed. In  nearly  every  State  of  his  numerical  habita- 
tion, the  negro  is  disfranchised  under  the  forms  of 
law.  In  all  the  States  where  his  ballot  is  a  menace 
to  white  supremacy,  it  is  restrained.  With  all  these 
years,  and  all  these  forces  at  his  back,  there  has  been 
an  utter  failure  to  establish  the  negro  in  a  satisfactory 
and  self-reliant  position  under  the  law.  Four  decades 
after  his  emancipation  he  is  in  point  of  fact  less  a  free- 
man and  infinitely  less  a  citizen  than  he  was^  in  1868. 
The  tumult  of  the  times  about  us  proclaim  the  con- 
tinued existence  and  the  unreconciled  equations  of 
the  problem  that  he  makes ;  and  in  the  common  judg- 
ment of  mankind  the  legend,  FAILURE,  is  written 
large  and  lowering  above  the  tottering  fabric  of  his 
civil  rights. 

And  yet  the  experiment  goes  on.  Unchanging  and 
unlearning,  the  republic  gropes  in  solemn  stupidity,  in 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  RACES.         1 1 

helpless  apathy,  in  misguided  philanthropy,  through 
ceaseless  complications  and  hopeless  precedent  to  the 
hopeless  and  preordained  conclusion.  The  experiment 
goes  on. 

I  ask  you,  men  and  women  of  this  University,  to 
consider  with  me  the  difficulties  which  this  vast  prob- 
lem entails,  and  the  mighty  reasons  which,  for  the 
sake  of  both  races,  sternly  and  imperatively  require  its 
solution. 

To  the  white  man  this  problem  means  division.  It 
imperils  national  unity.  It  always  has  done  so.  It 
always  will  do  so.  From  the  Philadelphia  conven- 
tion to  the  present  hour  the  negro  has  always  been 
a  bone  of  contention.  North,  East  and  West,  the  sec- 
tions tolerate  in  tranquility  divisions  of  trade  and  sen- 
timent, and  clasp  hands  everywhere  without  suspicion 
or  distrust.  But  a  Chinese  wall  of  prejudice  shuts 
out  the  South  on  this  question  from  the  sympathy 
of  the  American  people,  and  although  fraternal  plati- 
tudes may  cross  it,  and  political  affiliations  may  scale 
it,  and  commercial  interchange  may  run  its  electric 
wires  under  and  above  it,  and  although  but  recently 
military  loyalty  has  seemed  to  shatter  it,  this  wall 
stands,  in  the  sight  of  God  and  of  nations,  and  hedges 
in  the  South  as  a  separate  and  peculiar  people,  hin- 
dered with  misapprehension,  held  aloof  in  prejudice, 
and  fretted  by  a  criticism  which,  if  sometimes  founded 
in  philanthropy,  is  too  often  expressed  in  passtbn  and 
answered  in  bitterness. 

And  so  long  as  the  problem1  stands  the  old  slave 
States  of  the  South,  unwillingly,  protestingly,  despair- 
ingly, and  yet  inevitably,  must  be,  and  will  be,  the 
continuing  gap  in  the  magnificent  line  of  our  national 
unity. 

To  the  white  man  of  the  South  the  problem  hampers, 
its  material  development.  It  halts  our  growth.  By 


12        THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  RACES. 

the  records  of  the  census  it  frightens  immigration 
from  industrial  competition  with  the  negro.  It  largely 
deters  capital  from  investment  in  the  shadow  of  an 
unsolved  problem.  It  makes  a  standard  of  labor  that 
prejudices  all  our  Southern  poor  against  menial  but 
honorable  service.  It  depresses  agriculture  on  the 
farms  and  property  in  the  suburbs,  and  drives  all  who 
can  afford  the  change  to  the  safety  afforded  by  prox- 
imity and  police  protection  in  the  cities.  The  South 
is  unequaled  in  the  four  great  basic  raw  materials  of 
coal,  iron,  cotton  and  lumber.  And  yet,  while  $100,- 
000,000  of  our  money  goes  yearly  to  Europe  at  4  per 
cent.,  these  great  fields  are  scantily  developed.  And 
thus,  while  one  great  section  of  our  country  is  halted 
in  development,  the  free  movement  of  men  and  money 
in  all  sections  is  hindered  toward  the  inviting  field  of 
opportunity. 

It  is  a  problem  of  moral  decay.  It  demoralizes  pol- 
itics. Wherever  a  black  supremacy  is  threatened 
through  a  black  majority  the  black  ballot  is  strangled 
without  reserve  in  the  black  hands  that  hold  it  against 
the  safety  of  the  State.  This  is  wrong.  It  is  illegal. 
It  is  monstrous.  But  it  is  true.  It  is  true  in  Georgia. 
It  is  true  in  South  Carolina.  Aye,  and  it  would  be 
true  in  Massachusetts  and  in  Illinois.  Put  yourself, 
men  of  Illinois,  in  the  place  of  the  people  you  perhaps 
condemn.  Suppose  that  by  the  steady  drift  of  emi- 
gration the  negro  had  come  from  the  South  to  be  a 
majority  in  every  congressional  district,  in  every  legis- 
lative precinct,  and  in  every  municipal  ward  of  Illinois. 
Suppose  that,  realizing  this  majority,  he  had  organ- 
ized to  utilize  it.  Suppose  that  you  looked  forward,  in 
the  next  election,  not  only  to  the  probability,  but  to 
the  absolute  certainty,  that  the  next  governor  of  Illi- 
nois would  be  a  negro;  that  you  would  have  two 
negroes  in  the  United  States  Senate  to  take  the  places 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  RACES.        13 

of  Hopkins  and  of  Cullom;  that  you  would  have  a 
solid  negro  delegation  in  Congress;  a  legislature  at 
Springfield  looking  like  a  blackbird  pie;  negro  judges 
on  the  bench;  negro  solicitors  in  your  courts;  negro 
mayors  in  your  chairs,  and  a  negro  policeman  on  your 
streets — let  me  ask  you,  man  of  Illinois,  with  your 
pride  in  the  past  glories,  and  your  confidence  in  the 
future  achievements  of  your  historic  State — let  me  ask 
you,  if,  in  the  shadow  of  this  threat  and  danger,  the 
streets  of  Springfield  and  Chicago,  and  the  woods  an  1 
prairies  of  Illinois,  would  not  be  filled  with  eager 
white  men  asking  how  the  South  suppressed  the  ne- 
gro vote? 

And  will  you  answer  that  frank  question,  man  of 
Illinois,  or  man  of  Massachusetts,  like  an  honest  Cau- 
casian, and  like  an  Anglo-Saxon  gentleman? 

But  the  stern  and  solemn  necessity  does  not  cure 
the  moral  stain.  The  deadliest  influence  that  can  com- 
pass a  popular  government  is  in  the  decay  of  the  spirit 
that  hedges  the  ballot  with  sanctity.  The  ballot  is 
the  palladium  of  our  liberties.  The  ballot  is  sacred. 
A  crime  against  the  ballot  is  a  stab  at  the  constitution, 
and  the  necessity  which  makes  the  ballot  the 
sport  of  conditions  must  be  removed  if  the  re- 
public shall  survive.  And  yet  the  problem  shows  no 
promise  on  this  line.  We  might  as  well  be  honest 
here.  We  might  as  well  face  stern  facts  with  fearless 
frankness.  I  do  not  say  it  is  right.  I  know  it  is  wrong. 
I  do  not  defend.  I  do  not  justify.  I  do  not  argue  it 
at  all.  But  I  am  simply  here  to  tell  you  plainly,  defi- 
nitely, resolutely,  from  the  fulness  and  certainty  of 
knowledge,  that  which  you  already  know,  and  that 
which,  under  reversed  conditions,  you  would  unques- 
tionably endorse — that  there  will  never  come  a  change 
in  these  suppressions  while  these  conditions  last. 

Never,  never  in  a  thousand  years  will  the  negro, 


14        THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  RACES. 

North  or  South,  be  allowed  to  govern  in  this  republic, 
even  where  his  majorities  are  plain.  We  might  as  well 
:  fix  this  fact  in  our  minds  to  stay.  No  statute  can 
eradicate,  no  public  opinion  can  remove,  no  armed 
force  can  overthrow,  the  inherent,  invincible,  inde- 
structible, and,  if  you  will,  the  unscrupulous  capacity 
.and  determination  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  to  rule. 

It  is  only  the  knife  of  surgery  that  can  cure  this 
poison  in  the  body  and  the  bones  of  politics.  Under 
the  shadow  of  the  problem  our  politics  must,  and  will, 
be  stained. 

Good  government  at  this  point,  and  wherever  this 
black  ballot  is  counted,  is  threatened,  too,  in  its  integ- 
rity by  the  growing  numbers  and  the  increasing  ve- 
nality of  this  mercenary  and  irresponsible  and  ever- 
purchasable  vote,  prolific  of  corruption,  balancing  be- 
tween factions,  and  holding  the  mighty  power  of  de- 
cision in  tremendous  issues  at  the  beck  of  a  tribe  or 
the  swell  of  a  savage  prejudice. 

The  problem  also  throttles  political  independence  in 
the  South.  We  have  been  ready  there  for  years  to 
•divide  on  party  lines.  We  do  not  dare  to  do  it.  With 
the  white  race  divided,  the  negro  is  held  up  once  more 
to  the  ballot-box  and  becomes  the  balance  of  power  in 
the  policies  of  the  time.  We  have  our  separate  and 
divergent  convictions  on  economic  issues.  We  crush 
these  under  the  iron  heel  of  necessity.  We  have  our 
varying  interests  that  would  naturally  be  expressed 
in  opposing  politics.  We  sacrifice  these  material  is- 
sues to  the  greater  stake.  And  the  great  people  of  the 
South,  dominated  and  solidified  by  the  fear  of  this 
unwholesome  balance,  are  whipped,  protesting,  into 
line  behind  expediency,  and  forced  to  compulsory 
union  in  a  single  party.  The  education  of  the  hustings, 
the  friction  of  ideas,  the  vigilant  watchfulness  of  jeal- 
ous partisanship,  and  the  political  liberty  of  the 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  RACES.         15 

thinker  and  of  the  voter,  are  all  lost  in  the  shadow  of 
the  somber  apprehension. 

In  a  land  of  light  and  liberty,  in  an  age  of  enlight- 
enment and  law,  the  women  of  the  South  are  prison- 
ers to  danger  and  fear.  While  your  women  may  walk 
from  suburb  to  suburb,  and  from  township  to  town- 
ship, without  escort  and  without  alarm,  there  is  not  a 
woman  of  the  South,  wife  or  daughter,  who  would  be 
permitted,  or  who  would  dare  to  walk  at  twilight  un- 
guarded through  the  residence  streets  of  a  populous 
town,  or  to  ride  the  outside  highways  at  midday.  The 
terror  of  the  twilight  deepens  with  the  darkness,  and 
in  the  rural  regions  every  farmer  leaves  his  home  with 
apprehension  in  the  morning  and  thanks  God  when 
he  comes  from  the  fields  at  evening  to  find  all  well 
with  the  women  of  his  home.  For  behind  the  preju- 
dice of  race  stalks  the  fiend  of  lust,  and  behind  the 
rapist  thunders  the  mob — engine  of  vengeance,  mon- 
strous, lawless,  deplorable,  but,  under  the  uncured  de- 
fects of  the  law  the  fiery  terror  of  the  criminal  and 
the  chief  defense  of  woman. 

This  is  also  a  problem  of  justice.  Fair  as  our  de- 
signs, and  equitable  as  our  verdicts,  as  tested  by  the 
highest  courts,  the  prejudice  of  race  inevitably  poisons 
law  and  tempts  justice,  from  the  jury's  box  to  the 
judge's  bench. 

It  is  a  problem  of  religious  unity — separating  breth- 
ren and  dividing  usefulness.  For  more  than  one  great 
religious  body  in  this  country,  cherishing  a  common 
creed,  believing  in  one  Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism, 
are  sundered  and  set  in  separate  and  sectional  camps 
by  the  clash  of  convictions  here. 

It  is  a  problem  of  numbers.  Four  million  slaves 
were  freed.  There  are  nine  million  negroes  now. 
The  problem  grows  in  difficulty  with  marvelously  in- 
creasing numbers,  and  is  magnified  in  vitality  by  de- 
lay. If  antagonisms,  now  so  fundamental,  are  not 


16        THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  RACES. 

softened ;  if  prejudices,  now  so  serious,  are  not  healed, 
then  the  future  darkens,  and  we  shall  enter  with 
swollen  numbers  upon  a  period  of  strife  and  wrangle, 
in  whose  perils  our  present  troubles  will  not  be  remem- 
bered. Optimism  is  easy.  Optimism  is  popular.  But 
the  logic  of  conditions  is  ominous  with  warning,  and 
it  is  braver  to  be  honest  and  wiser  to  be  prepared. 

Here,  then,  the  issues:  Unity  of  the  republic,  ma- 
terial development,  purity  of  politics,  political  inde- 
pendence, respect  for  the  ballot,  reverence  for  the  con- 
stitution, the  safety  of  our  homes,  the  sanctity  of  our 
women,  the  supremacy  of  law,  the  sacredness  of  jus- 
tice, the  integrity  of  race,  and  the  unity  of  the  church. 
There  is  not  a  phase  of  our  civilization,  there  is  not 
a  principle  of  our  race,  there  is  not  a  fundamental  of 
society,  that  is  not  wrapped  in  the  hopeless  tangle 
which  this  problem  weaves. 

These  are  difficulties  which  compass  the  white  man 
of  the  -South.  Heaven  knows  they  are  serious  enough. 

But  what  of  the  negro?  It  would  be  cruel  and  un- 
kind to  cast  up  the  balances  of  this  great  account  with- 
out considering  him.  I  speak  the  representative  senti- 
ment of  the  South  when  I  say  that  we  would  not  come 
to  the  consideration  of  this  tremendous  issue  without 
a  high  and  humane  consideration  for  the  negro.  How 
does  the  problem  come  to  him,  and  what  does  the 
future  hold? 

"Will  the  white  man  permit  the  negro  to  have  an 
equal  part  in  the  industrial,  political,  social  and  civil 
advantages  of  the  United  States?"  This,  as  I  under- 
stand it,  is  the  question  which  involves  his  life  and 
destiny. 

These  words  come  from  a  negro — the  wisest,  the 
most  thoughtful,  and  the  most  eloquent  negro  of  his 
time — as  discreet  as  Washington,  a  deeper  thinker, 
and  a  much  more  eloquent  man.  But  for  one  hour  of 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  RACES.         17 

the  Atlanta  exposition,  Council,  of  Huntsville,  might 
stand  to-day  where  Washington,  of  Tuskegee  stands — 
as  the  recognized  leader  of  his  race. 

This  question,  asked  by  Council,  as  the  deliberate 
representative  of  his  people,  is  the  core  j^i  the  negro 
problem. 

The  answer  to  it  is  in  every  white  man's  heart,  even 
if  it  does  not  lie  openly  on  every  white  man's  lips.  It 
may  be  expressed  in  diplomacy;  it  may  be  veiled  in 
indirection ;  it  may  be  softened  in  philanthropy ;  it  may 
be  guarded  in  politic  utterance,  and  oftenest  of  all,  it 
is  restrained  by  ultra  conservatism  and  personal  tim- 
idity. But  wherever  the  answer  to  this  vital  question 
comes,  stripped  of  verbiage  and  indirection,  it  rings 
like  a  martial  bugle  in  the  single  syllable — "No !" 

This  may  not  be  right,  but  it  is  honest.  It  may 
not  be  just,  but  it  is  evident.  It  may  not  be  politic, 
but  it  is  a  great,  glaring,  indisputable,  indestructible 
fact.  North  and  South,  the  answer,  wherever  it  is 
honest,  is  the  same.  I  agree  with  Albion  Tourgee 
that  there  are  not  ten  thousand  men  in  the  republic 
who  can  answer  that  question  in  the  affirmative. 
Council  knows  the  answer  and  states  it  with  the  cour- 
age of  a  man.  Bishop  Turner  knows  it ;  Bishop  Hol- 
sey  knows  it ;  Bryden  and  Bruce  and  Taylor  knew  it ; 
the  Chicago  papers  know  it;  I  think  that  Booker  T. 
Washington  knows  it  sadly  in  his  heart,  and  I  believe 
that  every  thoughtful  gentleman  who  strips  theory 
from  the  bare  form  of  fact  knows  it — here  and  every- 
where. 

This  is  from  first  to  last  a  race  problem.  It  is  an 
issue  of  race  and  not  of  politics.  It  is  a  thing  of  skin 
and  type,  and  not  of  section  or  condition.  It  is  a  pail 
of  the  universal  problem.  The  history  of  man  has 
been  written  in  a  race  antagonism  and  in  race  separa- 
tion. The  Hebrew  and  Egyptian,  the  Jew  and  the 

2ns 


18        THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  RACES. 

Gentile,  the  Turk  and  the  Christian,  Magyar  and  Hun- 
garian, Venetian  and  Moor,  Mexican  and  Texan,  ne- 
gro and  Chinaman,  white  man  and  Indian — the  repul- 
sion is  the  same. 

A  thousand  years  have  not  removed  the  prejudice 
against  the  Jew,  who  is  the  aristocrat  of  history.  How 
then  shall  the  negro  hope  to  conquer  where  the  Jew 
has  failed?  This  race  prejudice  has  no  sectional  lines. 
It  is  held  in  no  geographical  boundaries.  Every  issue 
of  the  leading  negro  papers  published  in  the  North 
reeks  with  protest  against  the  discriminations  exer- 
cised throughout  the  North  against  the  negro  race. 
Boston,  the  metropolis  of  abolition,  will  not  employ 
negroes  in  the  department  stores.  Nor  will  Chicago. 
The  Boston  "Globe"  received  a  formal  social  protest 
against  the  employment  of  a  negro  reporter  on  its 
local  staff.  The  sister's  son  of  Wendell  Phillips,  rich 
with  the  evangel  blood  of  emancipation,  refused  to 
associate  with  a  negro  in  Harvard  University.  Fred 
Douglas  in  his  last  speech  declared  that  only  one  white 
man  in  all  the  ranks  of  the  abolitionists  had  ever  per- 
mitted him  to  forget  in  his  presence  that  he  was  a 
negro.  There  are  40,000  negroes  in  Ohio,  Pennsyl- 
vania and  New  York.  Where  is  the  office  that  they 
hold,  or  the  station  of  trust  and  profit  that  they  fill? 
In  Mr.  Crumpacker's  State  of  Indiana  they  lynch  ne- 
groes almost  as  frequently  and  upon  much  less  provo- 
cation than  in  Georgia.  A  riot  raised  on  race  preju- 
dice reddened  the  central  avenues  of  New  York.  Chi- 
cago citizens  chased  a  negro  through  the  central 
streets,  ready  with  a  rope  to  visit  capital  punishment 
for  theft.  Boston  elected  a  negro  by  accident  to  her 
common  council,  and  then  offered  him  $10,000  to  re- 
move his  offensive  color  from  the  chamber  in  which 
he  served. 

Race  prejudice  is  as  old  as  the  world,  and  as  ever- 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  RACES.         19 

lasting  as  the  hills,  and  this  prejudice — deep,  uncircum- 
scribed  and  uneradicable — sits  like  a  shadow  on  the 
future  of  the  weaker  race.  It  makes  the  core  of  his 
problem,  and  it  answers  Council's  earnest  question 
with  an  inexorable  "No !" 

Under  this  prejudice  the  negro  can  never,  North 
or  South,  be  received  in  equal  social  and  personal 
relations  with  the  families  of  the  white  race,  and  can 
never,  therefore,  be  a  social  equal  with  the  white  man. 

Under  this  prejudice  he  will  never,  North  or  South, 
be  permitted  to  govern  in  any  State  or  country,  even 
where  he  has  a  majority,  and  he  can  never,  therefore, 
foe  a  political  equal. 

If  he  can  have,  then,  neither  social  nor  political 
equality — and  every  fact  and  all  theory  and  all  in- 
stinct and  every  unbroken  precedent  declare  that  he 
•can  not — then  he  can  never  under  these  conditions 
reach  the  full  development  of  a  citizen  or  the  full 
stature  of  a  man.  If  he  remains  in  this  country,  he 
must  remain  as  an  inferior,  and  his  suffrage  becomes 
a  mockery  and  his  liberty  a  farce. 

It  is  a  problem  for  the  negro,  because  he  can  never 
•compete  with  Anglo-Saxon  civilization.  Once  more 
I  recall  that  his  is  the  weakest  and  ours  the  strongest 
race  on  earth.  Our  majority  is  60,000,000,  and  we 
have  a  thousand  years  the  start  of  him.  No  race  has 
ever  competed  successfully  with  the  Saxon,  and  where 
is  the  hope  of  the  negro?  In  politics,  in  society,  in 
industry  and  in  trade  there  is  no  well-founded  hope 
for  the  inferior  race.  History  without  a  break,  and 
precedent  without  a  variation,  proclaim  this  to  be  true. 
There  is  not  a  line  of  light  or  promise  of  equality  for 
him  in  any  field. 

This  is  the  core  of  my  contention — the  basis  of  my 
argument.  All  our  splendid  platitudes  are  wrecked  on 
this  stern  fact.  All  our  brave  philanthropies  beat  out 


20        THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  RACES. 

their  beautiful  lives  on  this  inexorable  truth.  The  ne- 
gro fronts  a  hopeless  and  unequal  competition ! 

There  he  stands,  that  helpless  and  unfortunate  in- 
ferior. For  his  sake  the  one  difference  has  widened 
between  the  sections  of  our  common  country.  Ovcr 
his  black  body  we  have  shed  rivers  of  blood  and  treas- 
ure to  emphasize  our  separate  convictions  of  his  des- 
tiny. And  yet,  as  the  crimson  tide  rolls  away  into  the 
years,  we  realize  that  all  this  blood  and  treasure  and 
travail  was  spent  in  vain,  and  that  the  negro,  whom  a 
million  Americans  died  to  free,  is  in  present  bond  and 
future  promise  still  a  slave,  whipped  by  circumstance,, 
trodden  under  foot  by  iron  and  ineradicable  prejudice  ; 
shut  out  forever  from  the  opportunities  which  are  the 
heritage  of  liberty,  and  holding  in  his  black  hand  the 
hollow  parchment  of  his  franchise  as  a  free  man,  looks 
through  a  slave's  eyes  at  the  impassable  barriers  which- 
imprison  him  forever  within  the  progress  and  achieve- 
ment of  a  dominant  and  all-conquering  race. 

By  the  whole  unbroken  record  of  Anglo-Saxon  his- 
tory, I  swear  that  this  is  true. 

Two  things  seem  clear,  then,  in  relation  to  the  race 
problem.  In  its  present  status  it  compasses  the  pro- 
gress of  the  white  man  with  demoralization  and  diffi- 
culty that  puts  his  very  civilization  in  peril  and  dis- 
repute. 

In  its  present  status  it  wraps  the  negro's  destiny  in 
unequal  competition  and  leaves  him  helpless  under 
the  weight  of  a  prejudice  universal,  unlifting,  un- 
changing, and  overwhelming. 

Shall  this  experiment  go  on? 

Will  education  soften  these  conditions  and  bring 
the  experiment  to  success?  Serious  thinkers  deeply 
question  this.  By  the  record  of  the  census,  the  negro's 
criminality  has  increased  as  his  illiteracy  has  de- 
creased, and  his  race  antagonism  has  grown  with  his- 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  RACES.         21 

intelligence.  Education  brings  light,  and  light  per- 
ception, and  with  quickened  faculties  the  negro  sees 
the  difference  between  his  real  and  his  constitutional 
status  in  the  republic.  He  sees  that  neither  worth  nor 
merit  nor  attainment  can  overcome  the  world-wide 
repulsion  of  type  and  color;  and,  seeing  this,  he  is 
moved  to  rebellious  protest  and  sometimes  to  violent 
revenge.  Education  spoils  the  laborer  and  makes  in- 
evitably, and  logically,  and  laudably,  the  aspirant  for 
social  and  political  equalities  which  have  been,  and 
will  be,  forever  denied  him  by  the  ruling  race.  Edu- 
cation develops  wants  which  can  not  be  supplied,  and 
aspirations  which  never  can  be  met.  Industrial  edu- 
cation will  not  win  where  mental  education  has  faile-'l 
The  hand  is  not  greater  than  the  head.  Industrial 
•competition  will  make  a  sterner  struggle  with  the  su- 
perior people.  The  battle  of  the  loaf  will  be  the  dead- 
liest and  most  destructive  contest  of  the  races. 

Will  the  formal  repeal  of  the  Fifteenth  Amendment 
•cut  the  core  from  the  political  problem,  and  develop 
peace?  I  do  not  think  so.  The  elimination  of  the 
negro  from  politics  would  remove  him  from  strife  and 
wrangle,  and  destroy  the  sectional  bitterness  with 
which  his  history  has  divided  the  republic.  But  it 
would  cut  hope  and  motive  and  ambition  from  his 
horizon,  and  leave  him  sunken  and  degraded,  with 
nothing  to  live  for  but  his  creature  comfort  and  his 
lust. 

Will  religion  heal  the  problem  and  lose  the  preju- 
dice of  race  in  the  brotherhood  of  man?  Not  this 
side  of  the  millennium — not  before  the  coming  of 
Christ — will  human  nature  undergo  the  regeneration 
that  will  bring  this  result  to  pass.  If  the  spirit  of 
Christ  could  pervade  the  world — if  the  devil  of  preju- 
dice could  be  held  in  bondage  for  a  thousand  years — 
when  the  world  is  the  new  heaven ;  when  man  is  every- 


22        THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  RACES. 

where  the  image  of  his  Maker — these  things  may  then 
be  solved  in  the  alembic  of  religion.  But  "ifs"  are  in- 
tangible, "whens"  are  immaterial,  and  both  are  millen- 
nial. For  when  these  "ifs"  are  materialized  into 
"is'es,"  and  the  "whens"  are  crystallized  into  "nows," 
then,  indeed,  this  corruptible  shall  have  put  on  incor- 
ruption,  and  this  mortal  shall  have  put  on  immortality 
in  the  land  where  prejudice  is  ended  and  problems 
have  no  place. 

Can  the  strong  race  lift  up  the  weaker  to  its  level? 
Not  in  contact,  not  in  proximity.  Never.  In  the  long, 
slow  process  the  higher  would  inevitably  sink  nearer 
to  the  level  of  the  lower  race.  Inferior  races  absorb- 
the  vices  rather  than  the  virtues  of  the  superior  race. 
The  Hawaiian  has  degenerated  in  health  and  morals 
by  contact  with  the  English-speaking  race.  The 
Turanian  and  Tasmanian  races  perished  by  contact 
with  higher  civilization.  The  Maoris  and  New  Zeal- 
anders  suffered  so,  and  the  noble  red  man  is  to-day  a 
besotted  wretch  perishing  in  the  white  heat  of  a  civil- 
ization for  which  he  was  never  designed.  Not  in 
equal  relations,  not  side  by  side,  can  the  higher  race 
reform  the  lower.  Apart  and  separate,  by  missionary 
and  evangel,  by  example  and  by  counsel,  we  may  help 
an  inferior  race  to  be  helpful,  self-reliant,  and  free. 
But  not  under  the  shadow  of  our  robust  and  stalwart 
sins,  or  under  the  iron  weight  of  our  all-conquering 
evils.  History  stamps  discouragement  on  the  theory 
everywhere. 

May  God  keep  this  great  Caucasian  people  from- 
the  poison  of  a  "mongrel"  blood ! 

Is  there  any  other  remedy  ?  Is  there  any  other  balm 
in  Gilead?  Is  there  any  healing  here?  Not  within 
my  vision,  and  not  within  the  records  of  experience. 
Try  all  these  remedies,  test  them  all  as  they  have  all 
been  tested  and  mocked  in  the  trials  of  the  years.  Try 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  EACES.         23 

any  new  remedy  that  wisdom  or  quackery  may  pro- 
pose. And  when  we  have  tried  them  all,  and  have 
failed  in  all,  as  we  are  failing  and  will  forever  fail,  it 
may  be  that  Almighty  God,  the  last  imminent  factor 
in  the  destiny  of  nations,  will  strike  the  scales  from 
our  blinded  eyes  and  lead  us  by  elimination  and  higher 
logic  to  see  the  remedy — the  only  remedy — His 
remedy. 

For  on  the  single  occasion  when  the  skies  were 
parted  for  light  upon  the  problem  of  the  wrangling 
races,  Almighty  God  reached  down  to  Egypt  and  by 
the  definite  way  of  separation,  led  by  the  Jews,  His 
chosen  people,  over  seas  of  difficulty  and  through 
wildernesses  of  doubt  to  their  promised  land. 

Separation  of  the  races  is  the  way — the  only  way. 
If  God  "hath  made  of  one  blood  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth,"  He  hath  also  "established  unto  them  the  metes 
and  bounds  of  their  habitation !"  He  did  not  intend 
that  opposite  and  antagonistic  races  should  live  to- 
gether. The  prejudice  of  race  is  a  pointing  of  provi- 
dence, and  the  antagonism  of  peoples  is  the  fixed 
policy  by  which  God  peoples  the  different  portions  of 
the  universe  and  establishes  the  individuality  of  the 
nations.  The  act  that  brought  these  people  together 
on  this  continent  was  a  sin  of  the  fathers — a  sin  of 
greed,  an  iniquity  of  trade — and  the  sorrow  and  suffer- 
ing of  the  present  is  for  the  sin  of  the  past,  a  sin 
against  nature,  and  a  sin  against  God.  The  curse  can 
be  lifted  only  when  nature  is  vindicated  and  God  is 
obeyed.  The  problem  will  be  solved  only  when  the 
negro  is  restored  to  the  "bounds  of  his  habitation." 

The  wisdom  of  our  wise  men  has  fallen  in  line  with 
the  wisdom  of  the  Almighty.  Some  of  the  greatest 
names  and  greatest  hearts  in  all  our  history  have 
thought  and  said  that  separation  was  the  logical,  the 
inevitable,  the  only  solution.  Daniel  Webster  said  so. 


24        THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  RACES. 

Thomas  Jefferson  said  so,  most  definitely  and  elo- 
quently. Edward  Everett  said  so.  James  Madison 
said  so.  Henry  Clay  believed  and  said  it.  Twice  in 
his  glorious  and  illustrious  lifetime,  Abraham  Lin- 
coln, who  did  not  believe  in  the  negro  as  a  citizen  and 
a  voter,  moved  in  his  public  station  toward  a  definite 
plan  of  separation.  By  the  sending  of  Thomas  For- 
tune to  the  Philippines,  President  Roosevelt  is,  infer- 
entially  at  least,  in  consideration  of  a  similar  plan. 
Henry  Grady  believed  in  it.  Bishop  Turner  is  its  open 
advocate.  Blyden  and  Council  and  Taylor,  and  the 
ablest  leaders  of  the  race,  are  said  to  favor  it ;  and  I 
think  that  Booker  Washington  in  his  heart  knows  that 
neither  worth  nor  merit  nor  achievement  will  ever 
bridge  the  impassable  barrier  of  race  prejudice,  and 
that,  when  the  last  arrow  of  his  noble  but  hopeless 
effort  has  been  shot,  it  must  come  to  this  at  last. 

We  have  temporized  for  forty  years  upon  this  prob- 
lem. In  the  exhaustion  of  all  our  expedients,  in  the 
failure  of  all  our  theories,  and  in  the  providence  of 
God,  we  have  come  at  last  to  the  parting  of  the  ways. 

There  is  not  a  hope  in  fact  or  reason  for  the  negro 
outside  of  separation. 

There  is  no  peace,  no  purity,  no  tranquil  develop- 
ment, no  durable  prosperity,  and  no  moral  growth  for 
the  white  race  outside  of  separation. 

It  is  neither  impossible  nor  impracticable.  The  ele- 
ments are  willing  and  the  way  is  in  reach.  This  is  not 
a  day  of  impossibilities.  To  the  genius,  the  energy, 
and  the  necessities  of  this  age  all  things  are  possible. 
Every  day  sees  the  business  world,  the  educational 
world,  the  political  world  converting  the  impossible 
into  the  possible.  The  hand  of  the  Almighty  is  stead- 
ily opening  the  way. 

It  is  a  day  of  large  things,  a  day  of  magnificent  en- 
terprises, a  day  of  colossal  movements  everywhere. 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  RACES.         25 

England  has  offered  a  kingdom  tract  in  Africa  to 
the  Jews  of  the  world.  The  Zionist  congress  in  Switz- 
erland has  met  the  offer,  and  the  children  of  Israel- 
God's  chosen  people — scattered  for  centuries  through 
all  the  world,  will  come  trooping  back  to  re-establish 
Israel  as  a  nation  and  to  make  a  New  Jerusalem  upon 
ihe  earth.  Wonderful  and  inspiring  spectacle!  Is 
there  anything  so  wonderful,  so  marvelous,  as  this  in 
the  proposition  to  establish  a  compact,  gregarious  and 
•comparatively  docile  race  of  negroes  in  a  State  or 
country  of  their  own? 

Is  the  expense  appalling?  Is  the  cost  prohibitive? 
England  again  offers  an  example.  England,  our 
mother-country — England,  next  to  ourselves,  the 
greatest  and  most  enlightened  government  under  the 
sun — England  has  just  put  its  hand  into  its  pocket 
to  expend  $500,000,000  in  order  to  buy  out  the  Irish 
landlords  and  to  heal  the  otherwise  incurable  running 
sore  of  Irish  discontent.  Wonderful  liberality !  Won- 
derful statesmanship! 

We  are  as  rich  as  England — richer  than  England 
and  twice  as  rich  as  any  other  kingdom  in  the  world. 
We  have  as  great  a  stake,  as  tremendous  a  necessity 
in  this  negro  problem  as  England  had  with  Ireland. 
We  have  already  expended  $i  ,,000,000,000  in  the  futile 
•effort  to  make  the  negro  free.  If  England,  just  out 
of  the  war  in  Africa,  can  expend  $500,000,000  to  solve 
its  Irish  problem,  then  surely,  the  greatest  of  republics, 
in  this  era  of  peace  and  unparalleled  prosperity — at 
the  acme  of  its  wealth,  at  the  zenith  of  its  greatness 
.and  power — can  well  afford  to  put  a  few  hundred  mil- 
lions into  the  solution  of  the  vital  problem  of  its  races 
— a  problem  demoralizing  to  one  race  and  hopeless 
for  another ;  a  problem  that  menaces  unity,  purity  and 
peace.  Liberality  in  this  emergency  is  superb  econ- 
omy. 


26        THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  RACES. 

The  argument  of  analogy  would  seem  conclusive. 

Somewhere,  and  in  some  way,  if  the  races  are  to 
separate,  there  must  be  found  a  place  for  the  negro,  a 
plan  of  separation,  an  inducement,  and  the  consent  cf 
the  elements  involved.  Briefly  and  in  fragmentary 
outline.,  let  us  consider  these. 

In  the  matter  of  location.  Follow  first  the  inferen- 
tial line  of  the  President  of  the  United  States — the 
Philippines.  Thomas  Fortune's  mission  was  said  to 
be  successful.  His  report  was  published  that  the  Phil- 
ippine soil  and  climate  was  suited  to  the  negro;  that 
the  territory  was  ample,  and  that  on  one  of  these 
islands  he  believed  the  fortunes  of  the  negro  and  the 
Dative  might  be  worked  out  side  by  side.  It  may  be 
that  the  islands  of  the  sea  were  placed  by  Providence 
in  our  keeping  to  furnish  an  answer  to  the  problem 
of  the  times.  The  repatriation  of  Africa  is  the  senti- 
mental ideal  of  the  advocates  of  separation — to  go 
back  to  the  Dark  Continent  from  which  they  came, 
carrying  the  light,  the  law  and  the  gospel  of  the  great 
republic,  after  two  centuries  of  touch,  and  side  by  side 
with  the  children  of  Israel,  to  establish  anew  the 
merits  and  the  mission  of  an  unfortunate  race.  If 
there  be  those  who  would  oppose  on  philanthropic 
grounds  the  sending  of  the  negro  so  far  out  of  reach 
of  help  and  regulation,  there  is  land  to  be  had  at  home. 
Lower  California  might  be  secured.  The  lands  west 
of  Texas  might  be  had.  But  the  government  does  not 
need  to  purchase.  Four  hundred  million  acres  of  gov- 
ernment land  is  yet  untaken  and  undeveloped  in  the 
West.  Of  these  vast  acres  the  expert  hydrographer 
of  the  Interior  Department  has  reported  that  it  is 
easily  possible  to  redeem  by  irrigation  enough  to  sup- 
port in  plenty  a  population  of  sixty  million  people. 
So  that  the  question  of  location  is  secure.  A  grega- 
rious race  might  be  settled  anywhere  within  this  scope 


THE    PEOBLEM    OF    THE    EACES.  27 

of  suggestion  with  a  population  not  so  dense  as  that 
of  Belgium  and  the  Netherlands.  The  cost  would 
vary  with  the  location,  but  under  any  conservative 
plan  it  would  not  be  greater  than  England  will  spend 
in  Ireland,  and  not  nearly  so  much  as  the  Jews  for 
their  New  Jerusalem. 

No  reasonable  or  considerate  plan  would  call  for 
the  wholesale  or  summary  deportation  of  the  negro. 
With  his  consent,  and  with  governmental  aid,  the 
movement  might  proceed  slowly  and  with  consider- 
ation. The  older  negroes  would  scarcelv  care  to  go. 
They  are  passing  rapidly  to  a  land  that  our  problems 
can  not  reach.  Within  conservative  limits,  the  trans- 
portation even  to  Africa  would  be  practicable  and 
easy.  If  only  the  vessels  that  brought  foreigners  to  our 
shores  from  1880  to  1885  had  carried  back  to  Africa 
as  many  negroes  as  they  brought  immigrants  to  us, 
not  a  single  black  man,  woman  or  child  would  have 
been  left  in  the  country  in  1885 !  Carl  McKinley,  the 
ablest  and  clearest  statistician  who  has  ever  figured  on 
this  line,  has  made  it  plain  that  to  induce  the  annual 
emigration  of  12,500  child-bearing  females  of  the  aver- 
age age  of  twenty  years,  would  remove  the  maternal 
element  of  the  negro  race  in  forty  years,  and  leave  it 
easy  to  carry  the  remaining  part.  To  remove  in  forty 
years  all  the  negroes  who  are  now  under  the  age  of 
forty  years,  and  to  remove  the  increase  only — all  the 
children  who  shall  be  born  within  these  forty  years — 
would  be  the  remainder  of  the  problem — an  easy  and 
practicable  task.  And  the  same  cool  statistician,  figur- 
ing liberally  and  counting  it  as  sure  that  the  govern- 
ment would  do  what  it  unquestionably  ought  to  do, 
and  send  these  people  with  some  moneyed  provision 
for  their  earlier  wants,  estimates  that  at  $200  a  head  it 
would  cost  only  $10,000,000  a  year,  which  is  less  than 
one-twelfth  of  the  nation's  revenue  from  its  internal 


28         THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  RACES. 

taxes,  or  in  forty  years  the  total  cost  would  be  $400,- 
000,000 — or  $100,000,000  less  than  England  has  just 
paid  for  peace  and  tranquility  in  Ireland.  If  any  of 
you  who  hear  should  care  to  investigate  this  phase  of 
the  question  deeply,  and  to  carry  these  calculations 
forward,  you  will  find  Mr.  McKinley's  book,  "An  Ap- 
peal to  Pharaoh,"  one  of  the  most  instructive  and  con- 
vincing volumes  you  have  ever  read. 

Of  course,  in  the  event  of  locating  the  negro  in  this 
-country,  the  cost  would  be  largely  but  indefinitely  re- 
duced. 

Whether  a  State  or  colony  should  be  the  form  of 
government  would  be  within  the  discretion  of  the 
statesmen  who  put  this  plan  into  action.  If  a  State, 
it  would  have  the  model  and  example  of  our  own 
States  to  shape  its  plan  and  government.  It  might  be 
made  a  counterpart  of  our  surrounding  States ;  for  the 
negro's  is  an  imitative  mind,  and  he  could  not  find  a 
nobler  model.  If  a  State,  it  should  be  exclusively  a 
negro  State.  Every  office  in  it,  from  chief  justice  of 
the  court  to  coroner  of  the  county,  should  be  held  ex- 
clusive to  the  negro  race.  Every  white  man  should 
"be  debarred  from  right  of  franchise  or  of  holding 
property  in  that  State.  It  should  be — especially  if 
in  this  country — from  first  to  last  a  negro  State  hold- 
ing its  rights  under  the  Constitution — the  right  to  rep- 
resentation in  the  Federal  congress — paying  its  taxes 
to  the  government,  but  holding  every  right  free  and 
unchallenged,  equal  in  every  way  to  Illinois  or  Geor- 
gia. In  the  distribution  of  the  army  there  might  be 
placed  a  Federal  garrison  on  its  border  for  protection 
without  and  order  within  the  State. 

The  superb  inducement  to  the  negro  would  be 
found  in  the  freedom,  the  individuality,  and  the  oppor- 
tunity of  an  independent  commonwealth,  in  which  he 
would  be  freed  from  the  unequal  competition  of  a  su- 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  EACES.         2& 

perior  people,  and  given  a  chance  to  develop  a  char- 
acter, and  to  demonstrate  the  merits  of  his  leaders  and 
the  capacities  of  the  race. 

The  constraining  inducement  to  go  should  most 
unquestionably  be  given  in  an  amendment  to  the  Con- 
stitution which  restricted  his  ballot  to  the  State  set 
apart  for  him  by  the  generosity  of  the  government. 
This  would  be  fair.  It  would  be  equitable.  Let  no 
white  man  vote  in  the  negro  State  to  harass  the  negru 
councils,  and  let  no  negro  vote  in  any  other  State  than 
his  own.  Yon  cannot  vote  in  Georgia ;  I  cannot  vote 
in  Illinois.  The  hardship  is  not  great  in  view  of  the 
tremendous  reasons  that  require  it,  and  in  return  for 
the  magnificent  advantages  which  compensate  it. 
This  provision  would  be  necessary  as  a  controlling 
inducement  for  the  change.  Every  aspiration  in  the 
negro  race  should  set  toward  the  state  of  his  oppor- 
tunity. And  if,  with  this  great  goal  before  him,  he 
hesitated  to  go,  or  failed  in  going,  it  would  be  the  last 
crowning  proof  of  the  hopeless  and  remediless  infe- 
riority of  his  people.  Never  was  proposition  fairer. 
Never  was  compensation  nobler  to  a  race.  A  flag  for 
a  fetich ;  a  country  for  a  prison ;  and  a  glorious  and 
unhindered  opportunity  for  the  empty  mockery  of  a 
ballot,  which  has  been  and  will  be  strangled  here  for- 
ever in  his  grasp. 

Will  the  negro  go?  I  think  honestly  and  deliber- 
ately that  he  will.  The  protest  of  the  very  few  weil- 
fed,  well-kept,  and  well-conditioned  negroes  who  sur- 
round us  here  must  not  blind  us  to  the  plea  of  the 
helpless  and  hopeless  thousands  who  see  no  light  in 
the  present  and  no  hope  in  their  future  environment. 
Many  of  the  ablest  and  truest  leaders  of  the  race  are 
ardent  advocates  of  separation.  Bishop  Turner,  the 
wisest  and  most  conservative  leader  of  his  race,  is  the 
advocate  and  evangel  of  a  negro  republic  in  Africa. 


30        THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  RACES. 

Ten  thousand  negroes  in  Kansas  petitioned  congress 
to  appropriate  money  for  a  plan  of  separation.  As 
a  recognized  advocate  of  the  plan,  I  have  had  thous- 
ands of  letters  from  negroes  thanking  me  and  bidding 
me  God-speed  with  their  prayers.  Societies  have  been 
formed  all  over  the  country,  some  of  them  doing  me 
the  honor  to  bear  my  name,  to  organize  the  coopera- 
tive movement  for  a  separate  state.  A  circular  car- 
rying the  plan  was  put  ten  years  ago  into  the  hands 
of  one  of  the  ablest  and  most  eloquent  negroes  of  the 
South.  He  carried  it,  not  to  persuade,  but  to  explain 
to  leading  negroes  in  every  section  of  the  country, 
and  out  of  5,000  circulars  4,500  came  back  to  us  bear- 
ing the  deliberate,  grateful  approval  of  the  best  repre- 
sentatives of  the  negro  race.  I  believe  that,  fairly 
presented  to  his  intelligence,  fairly  appealing  to  his 
love  of  change,  and  with  a  general  understanding  of 
its  advantages  and  opportunities,  the  negro  will  thank 
•God  and  bless  America  for  a  plan  like  this. 

Will  the  white  South  be  willing  for  the  negro  to  go  ' 
I  frankly  confess  the  promise  of  some  opposition  to 
ihe  idea  in  the  South.  Paradoxical  as  it  may  seem,  the 
South  loves  the  negro — not  the  new  negro,  but  the 
old.  In  his  place  and  in  the  relations  clearly  under- 
stood, there  is  a  feeling  of  affection  between  the  south- 
ern white  man  and  the  better  negroes  which  our 
friends  to  the  north  of  us  can  never  appreciate  and 
never  understand.  But  the  relations  of  the  races  in 
the  South  are  constantly  growing  more  strained  and 
unpleasant.  The  new  negro  is  killing  the  relation 
established  by  the  old  negro.  Every  year  the  reluc- 
tance of  the  South  to  part  with  the  negro  is  lessened, 
and  the  multiplying  crimes  and  increasing  unthrift  of 
the  negro  are  changing  this  reluctance  to  a  positive 
anxiety  for  his  departure. 

The  chief  opposition  in  the  South  would  rest  upon 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  RACES.         31 

the  misapprehension,  which  you  doubtless  share,  that 
the  negro  is  indispensable  to  the  agriculture  and  labor 
conditions  of  that  section.  That  was  once  true.  It 
is  no  longer  true.  I  state  here  for  the  first  time  a  fact 
which  will  be  as  surprising  to  the  South  as  it  is  to  you  ; 
The  negro  no  longer  makes  the  staple  or  cereal  crops 
of  the  South  !  The  cotton  of  Texas,  of  Louisiana,  and 
of  Mississippi  is  made  chiefly  by  the  white  man  and 
not  by  the  negro!  The  negro  is  no  longer  an  indus- 
trial necessity.  This  fact  is  from  the  census.  It  is 
not  as  yet  published,  but  it  comes  straight  from  an 
authority  beyond  question  in  the  Labor  Bureau  at 
Washington.  It  is  being  verified  and  understood  bv 
the  best  observers  and  thinkers  of  the  States ;  and 
when  that  fact — that  tremendous  fact,  now  so  little 
understood — becomes  generally  known  in  the  country 
and  in  the  South,  then  the  South  will  stand  as  solidly 
for  separation  as  its  humblest  representative  stands 
for  it  here  to-day. 

And  if  this  means  the  reduction  of  our  representa- 
tion in  Congress,  let  that  come.  It  would  be  a  tem- 
porary loss.  The  exodus  of  the  negro  will  let  in  the 
tides  of  an  improved  and  restricted  immigration,  and 
the  working  Swede,  the  thrifty  German,  and  the  gal- 
lant Irishman  will  come  in  to  renew  our  political  sta- 
tus and  to  fill  the  hiatus  with  a  homogeneous  people. 

Will  the  northern  white  man  be  willing  for  the  ne- 
gro to  go? 

The  politician,  unthinking,  and  the  philanthropist, 
far-thinking  and  generally  over-thinking,  answers, 
"No!"  The  masses — the  real  people — answer,  "Yes  !" 
Recent  events  have  uncovered  a  revolution  of  senti- 
ment in  the  North  toward  the  negro.  The  masses 
have  been  disillusioned.  The  idleness,  the  ingrati- 
tude, the  insolence,  and  the  crime  of  the  negro  have 
alienated  even  his  friends.  Even  the  philanthropists 


32        THE  PEOBLEM  OF  THE  KACES. 

must  be  hopeless  at  least  over  the  unchanged  and  un- 
changing conditions  which  they  protest.  As  for  the 
politicians,  they  are  parrots — echoes  of  opinions, 
which  they  follow,  but  never  make.  The  masses, 
in  some  things  at  least,  are  the  masters  of  the  politi- 
cians— and  the  masses  see  the  truth. 

Standing  here  to-day,  and  standing  as  I  have  so 
often  stood  before  the  real  people  of  the  North  and 
West,  understanding  their  spirit  and  their  temper,  I 
announce  before  you,  without  hesitation  and  without 
reserve,  that  upon  this  issue  and  under  the  new  light 
which  the  decade  has  brought  it,  I  would  be  willing 
with  absolute  confidence  to  submit  to  the  vote  of  the 
real  people  of  the  North  and  West  the  whole  question 
of  the  South  and  the  negro — whether  that  issue  be 
disfranchisement  or  whether  it  be  separation ! 

Let  the  negro  continue  to  settle  in  the  North,  as  he 
has  done.  And  if  the  problem  continues,  it  will  bo 
our  only  recourse  to  persuade  him  to  settle  in  these 
great  centers  where  our  brethren  may  share  and  un- 
derstand our  perplexities.  Let  the  tide  continue  to 
drift  here — and  the  day  will  come  when  the  laboring 
masses  of  the  North  will  arise  and  demand  a  separa- 
tion just  as  sternly  as  they  demanded  and  secured  the 
exclusion  of  the  Chinese. 

The  philanthropist  will  grow  weary,  the  theorist 
will  despair,  and  the  politician  in  time  will  undergo  a 
change  of  heart.  And  we  all  shall  come  in  the  fulness 
of  real  philanthropy,  and  in  the  soundness  of  real  dis- 
cretion, to  see  the  only  solution — the  one  remedy — 
and  to  follow  it  in  the  fear  of  God  and  in  the  faith  of 
the  people,  to  prosperity  and  peace. 

Ladies  and  gentlemen,  my  message  is  given  and 
my  mission  is  done.  The  scope  of  the  discussion  is 
too  vast  for  an  hour  and  too  deep  for  a  morning's 
thought.  I  have  offered  the  bare  elements  which  your 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  RACES.        33 

brains  and  your  scholarship  must  clothe  with  the  form 
and  substance  of  more  elaborate  truth.  May  the 
words  which  have  been  spoken  in  weakness  be  raised 
in  strength,  and  may  you  see  my  people  and  their 
problem  as  you  have  not  done  before. 

Let  my  parting  words  plead  for  the  harmony  and 
sympathy  which  lie  for  us  beyond  this  dividing  issue. 
Abraham  Lincoln  told  you  in  1859  that  the  Union 
"could  not  survive  half  slave  and  half  free."  I  believe 
with  all  my  mind  that  if  he  lived  to-day  his  noble  lips 
would  frame  again  the  truth  that  the  Union  cannot 
any  longer  live  half  black  and  half  white — half  slave 
and  half  free !  This  is  an  issue  upon  which  it  seems 
we  can  never  agree. 

For  half  a  hundred  years  we  have  wrangled  and 
fought  and  bled  and  died  about  this  black  man  from 
Africa!  Is  the  wrangle  worth  its  fearful  cost?  Shall 
the  great  northern  section  of  our  common  country 
always  turn  its  hand  against  the  great  southern  sec- 
tion of  our  country?  Shall  the  young  American  of 
the  North  steel  his  heart  against  the  young  American 
of  the  South  over  an  alien's  cause  ?  Shall  the  children 
of  one  blood  and  of  a  common  glorious  heritage  di- 
vide in  bitterness  over  a  stranger  in  our  midst  ?  Shall 
the  memories  of  Eutaw  and  Yorktown  be  obliterated 
in  the  recollections  of  Wilmington  and  Newnan? 
Shall  the  peace  and  harmony  of  this  great  republic  be 
forever  imperiled  for  the  sake  of  the  negro,  whose 
faults  and  whose  weakness  so  wonderfully  outweigh 
his  virtues  and  his  gratitude?  Shall  the  black  man 
from  Africa  hinder  and  delay  the  work  and  the  des- 
tiny of  our  imperial  race? 

Great  God!  The  idea  is  monstrous  and  unthink- 
able !  The  South  is  neither  cruel  nor  unpatriotic,  and 
the  North  knows  it.  The  North  is  neither  immov- 
able nor  vindictive,  and  the  South  knows  it.  If  either 

3  ns 


34        THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  RACES. 

of  us  is  mistaken,  and  if  both  of  us  are  misunderstood, 
we  are  yet  one  people,  and  we  must  meet  upon  the 
plane  of  our  brotherhood  and  our  destiny. 

Men  and  women  of  the  University,  I  appeal  to  you 
who  make  the  future.  I  appeal  for  Caucasian  unity. 
I  appeal  for  the  imperial  destiny  of  our  mighty  race. 
This  is  our  country.  We  made  it.  We  molded  it. 
We  control  it,  and  we  always  will.  We  have  done 
great  things.  We  have  mighty  things  yet  to  do.  The 
negro  is  an  accident — an  unwilling,  a  blameless,  but 
an  unwholesome,  unwelcome,  helpless,  unassimilable 
element  in  our  civilization.  He  is  not  made  for  our 
times.  He  is  not  framed  to  share  in  the  duty  and  the 
destiny  which  he  perplexes  and  beclouds.  Let  us  put 
him  kindly  and  humanely  out  of  the  way.  Let  us  give 
him  a  better  chance  than  he  has  ever  had  in  history, 
and  let  us  have  done  with  him.  Let  us  solve  his  prob- 
lem— frankly,  fearlessly,  nobly,  and  speedily.  Let  us 
put  it  behind  us.  Let  us  purify  our  politics  of  the 
perplexity.  Let  us  liberate  the  South  to  vote  and  to 
think  like  free-men  upon  the  mighty  issues  of  the 
times. 

And  in  the  name  of  history  and  destiny,  in  the  name 
of  the  past  and  in  the  name  of  the  future,  in  the  name 
of  God  and  of  our  mission,  I  appeal  to  this  great,  con- 
quering Caucasian  race  to  lock  arms  and  go  forward 
and  onward  and  upward  to  its  essential  work. 


THE  BOSTON  BANQUET  SPEECH. 


BY  HENRY  W.  GRADY. 


Mr.  President:  Bidden  by  your  invitation  to  a  dis- 
cussion of  the  race  problem — forbidden  by  occasion 
to  make  a  political  speech — I  appreciate  in  trying  to 
reconcile  orders  with  propriety  the  predicament  of  the 
little  maid  who,  bidden  to  learn  to  swim,  was  yet  ad- 
jured, "Now,  go,  my  darling,  hang  your  clothes  on  a 
hickory  limb,  and  don't  go  near  the  water." 

The  stoutest  apostle  of  the  church,  they  say,  is  the 
missionary,  and  the  missionary,  wherever  he  unfurls 
his  flag,  will  never  find  himself  in  deeper  need  of  unc- 
tion and  address  than  I,  bidden  to-night  to  plant  the 
standard  of  a  Southern  Democrat  in  Boston's  ban- 
quet-hall, and  discuss  the  problem  of  the  races  in  the 
home  of  Phillips  and  of  Sumner.  But,  Mr.  President, 
if  a  purpose  to  speak  in  perfect  frankness  and  sin- 
cerity; if  earnest  understanding  of  the  vast  interests 
involved ;  if  a  consecrating  sense  of  what  disaster  may 
follow  further  misunderstanding  and  estrangement,  if 
these  may  be  counted  to  steady  undisciplined  speech 
and  to  strengthen  an  untried  arm — then,  sir,  I  find  the 
courage  to  proceed. 

Happy  am  I  that  this  mission  has  brought  my  feet 
at  last  to  press  New  England's  historic  soil,  and  my 
eyes  to  the  knowledge  of  her  beauty  and  her  thrift. 
Here,  within  touch  of  Plymouth  Rock  and  Bunker 
Hill — where  Webster  thundered  and  Longfellow  sang, 
Emerson  thought  and  Channing  preached — here  in 
the  cradle  of  American  letters,  and  almost  of  Ameri- 

(35) 


36  THE    BOSTON    BANQUET    SPEECH. 

can  liberty,  I  hasten  to  make  the  obeisance  that  every 
American  owes  New  England  when  first  he  stands 
uncovered  in  her  mighty  presence.  Strange  appari- 
tion !  This  stern  and  unique  figure — carved  from  the 
ocean  and  the.  wilderness — its  majesty  kindling  and 
growing  amid  the  storms  of  winters  and  of  wars — 
until  at  last  the  gloom  was  broken,  its  beauty  dis- 
closed in  the  sunshine,  and  the  heroic  workers  rested 
at  its  base — while  startled  kings  and  emperors  gazed 
and  marveled  that  from  the  rude  touch  of  this  hand- 
ful, cast  on  a  bleak  and  unknown  shore,  should  have 
come  the  embodied  genius  of  human  government,  and 
the  perfected  model  of  human  liberty !  God  bless  the 
memory  of  those  immortal  workers — and  prosper  the 
fortunes  of  their  living  sons — and  perpetuate  the  in- 
spirations of  their  handiwork. 

Two  years  ago,  sir,  I  spoke  some  words  in  New 
York  that  caught  the  attention  of  the  North.  As  I 
stand  here  to  reiterate,  as  I  have  done  everywhere, 
every  word  I  then  uttered — to  declare  that  the  senti- 
ments I  then  avowed  were  universally  approved  in  the 
South — I  realize  that  the  confidence  begotten  by  that 
speech  is  largely  responsible  for  my  presence  here  to- 
night. I  should  dishonor  myself  if  I  betrayed  that 
confidence  by  uttering  one  insincere  word,  or  by  with- 
holding one  essential  element  of  the  truth.  Apropos 
of  this  last,  let  me  confess,  Mr.  President — before  the 
praise  of  New  England  has  died  on  my  lips — that  I 
believe  the  best  product  of  her  present  life  is  the  pro- 
cession of  17,000  Vermont  Democrats  that  for  twenty- 
two  years,  undiminished  by  death,  unrecruited  by 
birth  or  conversion,  have  marched  over  their  rugged 
hills,  cast  their  democratic  ballots,  and  gone  back 
home  to  pray  for  their  unregenerate  neighbors,  and 
awake  to  read  the  record  of  25,000  Republican  ma- 


THE    BOSTON    BANQUET   SPEECH.  37 

jority.  May  God  of  the  helpless  and  the  heroic  help 
them — and  may  their  sturdy  tribe  increase! 

Far  to  the  south,  Mr.  President,  separated  from 
this  section  by  a  line,  once  defined  in  irrepressible  dif- 
ference, once  traced  in  fraticidal  blood,and  now,  thank 
Cod,  but  a  vanishing  shadow,  lies  the  fairest  and  rich- 
est domain  of  this  earth.  It  is  the  home  of  a  brave 
and  hospitable  people.  There,  is  centered  all  that  can 
please  or  prosper  humankind.  A  perfect  climate, 
above  a  fertile  soil,  yields  to  the  husbandman  every 
product  of  the  temperate  zone.  There,  by  night  the 
cotton  whitens  beneath  the  stars,  and  by  day  the 
wheat  locks  the  sunshine  in  its  bearded  sheaf.  In  the 
same  field  the  clover  steals  the  fragrance  of  the  wind, 
and  the  tobacco  catches  the  quick  aroma  of  the  rains. 
There,  are  mountains  stored  with  exhaustless  treas- 
ures ;  forests,  vast  and  primeval,  and  rivers  that,  tum- 
bling or  loitering,  run  wanton  to  the  sea.  Of  the 
three  essential  items  of  all  industries — cotton,  iron  and 
wood — that  region  has  easy  control.  In  cotton,  a  fixed 
monopoly — in  iron,  proven  supremacy — in  timber,  the 
reserve  supply  of  the  Republic.  From  this  assured 
and  permanent  advantage,  against  which  artificial 
conditions  can  not  much  longer  prevail,  has  grown 
an  amazing  system  of  industries.  Not  maintained  by 
human  contrivance  of  tariff  or  capital,  afar  off  from 
the  fullest  and  cheapest  source  of  supply,  but  resting 
in  Divine  assurance,  within  touch  of  field  and  mine 
and  forest — not  set  amid  costly  farms  from  which 
•competition  has  driven  the  farmer  in  despair,  but  amid 
cheap  and  sunny  lands,  rich  with  agriculture,  to  which 
neither  season  nor  soil  has  set  a  limit — this  system  of 
industries  is  mounting  to  a  splendor  that  shall  dazzle 
and  illumine  the  world. 

That,  sir,  is  the  picture  and  the  promise  of  my  home 
— a  land  better  and  fairer  than  I  have  told  you,  and 


38  THE    BOSTON    BANQUET    SPEECH. 

yet  but  fit  setting,  in  its  material  excellence,  for  the 
loyal  and  gentle  quality  of  its  citizenship.  Against 
that,  sir,  we  have  New  England,  recruiting  the  Re- 
public from  its  sturdy  loins,  shaking  from  its  over- 
crowded hives  new  swarms  of  workers  and  touching 
this  land  all  over  with  its  energy  and  its  courage.  And 
yet,  while  in  the  Eldorado  of  which  I  have  told  you, 
but  15  per  cent,  of  lands  are  cultivated,  Its  mines 
scarcely  touched  and  its  population  so  scant  that,  were 
it  set  equidistant,  the  sound  of  the  human  voice  could 
not  be  heard  from  Virginia  to  Texas — while  on  the 
threshold  of  nearly  every  house  in  New  England 
stands  a  son,  seeking  with  troubled  eyes  some  new 
land  in  which  to  carry  his  modest  patrimony,  the 
strange  fact  remains  that  in  1880  the  South  had  fewer 
Northern-born  citizens  than  she  had  in  1870 — fewer 
in  '70  than  in  '60.  Why  is  this?  Why  is  it,  sir, 
though  the  sectional  line  be  now  but  a  mist  that  the 
breath  may  dispel,  fewer  men  of  the  North  have 
crossed  it  over  to  the  South  than  when  it  was  crimson 
with  the  best  blood  of  the  Republic,  or  even  when  the 
slaveholder  stood  guard  every  inch  of  its  way? 

There  can  be  but  one  answer.  It  is  the  very  prob- 
lem we  are  now  to  consider.  The  key  that  opens  that 
problem  will  unlock  to  the  world  the  fairest  half  of 
this  Republic,  and  free  the  halted  feet  of  thousands 
whose  eyes  are  already  kindled  with  its  beauty.  Bet- 
ter than  this,  it  will  open  the  hearts  of  brothers  for 
thirty  years  estranged,  and  clasp  in  lasting  comrade- 
ship a  million  hands  now  withheld  in  doubt.  Noth- 
ing, sir,  but  this  problem,  and  the  suspicions  it  breeds, 
hinders  a  clear  understanding  and  a  perfect  union. 
Nothing  else  stands  between  us  and  such  love  as 
bound  Georgia  and  Massachusetts  at  ValleyForge  and 
Yorktown,  chastened  by  the  sacrifices  at  Manasses 
and  Gettysburg,  and  illumined  with  the  coming  of 


THE    BOSTON    BANQUET   SPEECH.  39 

better  work  and  a  nobler  destiny  than  was  ever 
wrought  with  the  sword  or  sought  at  the  cannon  s 
mouth. 

If  this  does  not  invite  your  patient  hearing  to-night 
— hear  one  thing  more.  My  people,  your  brothers  in 
the  South — brothers  in  blood,  in  destiny,  in  all  that 
is  best  in  our  past  and  future — are  so  beset  with  this 
problem  that  their  very  existence  depends  upon  its 
right  solution.  Nor  are  they  wholly  to  blame  for  its 
presence.  The  slave-ships  of  the  Republic  sailed  from 
your  ports — the  slaves  worked  in  our  fields.  You  will 
not  defend  the  traffic,  nor  I  the  institution.  But  I  do 
hereby  declare  that  in  its  wise  and  human  administra- 
tion, in  lifting  the  slave  to  heights  of  which  he  had 
not  dreamed  in  his  savage  home,  and  giving  him  a 
happiness  he  has  not  yet  found  in  freedom — our  fath- 
ers left  their  sons  a  saving  and  excellent  heritage. 
In  the  storm  of  war  this  institution  was  lost.  I  thank 
God  as  heartily  as  you  do  that  human  slavery  is  gone 
forever  from  the  American  soil.  But  the  freedman  re- 
mains. With  him  a  problem  without  precedent  or 
parallel.  Note  its  appalling  conditions.  Two  utterly 
dissimilar  races  on  the  same  soil — with  equal  political 
and  civil  rights — almost  equal  in  numbers,  but  terri- 
bly unequal  in  intelligence  and  responsibility — each 
pledged  against  fusion — one  for  a  century  in  servi- 
tude to  the  other,  and  freed  at  last  by  a  desolating  war 
— the  experiment  sought  by  neither,  but  approached- 
by  both  with  doubt — these  are  the  conditions.  Under 
these,  adverse  at  every  point,  we  are  required  to  carry 
these  two  races  in  peace  and  honor  to  the  end.  Never, 
sir,  has  such  a  task  been  given  to  mortal  stewardship. 
Never  before  in  this  Republic  has  the  white  race  di- 
vided on  the  rights  of  an  alien  race.  The  red  man 
was  cut  down  as  a  weed,  because  he  hindered  the  way 
of  the  American  citizen.  The  yellow  man  was  shut 


40  THE    BOSTON    BANQUET    SPEECH. 

out  of  this  Republic  because  he  is  an  alien  and  in- 
ferior. The  red  man  was  owner  of  the  land — the  yel- 
low man  highly  civilized  and  assimilable — but  they 
hindered  both  sections  and  are  gone !  But  the  black 
man,  affecting  but  one  section,  is  clothed  with  every 
privilege  of  government  and  pinned  to  the  soil,  and 
my  people  commended  to  make  good  at  any  hazard, 
and  at  any  cost,  his  full  and  equal  heirship  of  Ameri- 
can privilege  and  prosperity.  It  matters  not  that 
wherever  the  whites  and  blacks  have  touched,  in  any 
era,  or  any  clime,  there  has  been  irreconcilable  vio- 
lence. It  matters  not  that  no  two  races,  however  simi- 
lar, have  lived  anywhere  at  any  time  on  the  same  soil 
with  equal  rights  in  peace !  In  spite  of  these  things, 
we  are  commanded  to  make  good  this  change  of 
American  policy  which  has  not  perhaps  changed 
American  prejudice — to  make  certain  here  what  has 
elsewhere  been  impossible  between  whites  and  blacks 
— and  to  reverse,  under  the  very  worst  conditions,  the 
universal  verdict  of  racial  history.  And  driven,  sir, 
to  this  superhuman  task  with  an  impatience  that 
brooks  no  delay — a  rigor  that  accepts  no  excuse — 
and  a  suspicion  that  discourages  frankness  and  sin- 
cerity. We  do  not  shrink  from  this  trial.  It  is  so 
interwoven  with  our  industrial  fabric  that  we  can  not 
disentangle  it  if  we  would — so  bound  up  in  our  honor- 
able obligation  to  the  world,  that  we  would  not,  if  we 
could.  Can  we  solve  it?  The  God  who  gave  it  into 
our  hands,  He  alone  can  know.  But  this  the  weak- 
est and  wisest  of  us  do  know :  we  can  not  solve  it  with 
less  than  your  tolerant  and  patient  sympathy — with 
less  than  the  knowledge  that  the  blood  that  runs  in 
your  veins  is  our  blood — and  that  when  we  have  done 
our  best,  whether  the  issue  be  lost  or  won,  we  shall 
feel  your  strong  arms  about  us  and  hear  the  beating 
of  your  approving  hearts. 


THE    BOSTON    BANQUET    SPEECH.  41 

The  resolute,  clear-headed,  broad-minded  men  of 
the  South — the  men  whose  genius  made  glorious 
every  page  of  the  first  seventy  years  of  American  his- 
tory— whose  courage  and  fortitude  you  tested  in  five 
years  of  the  fiercest  war — whose  energy  has  made 
bricks  without  straw,  and  spread  splendor  amid  the 
ashes  of  their  war-wasted  homes — these  men  wear  this 
problem  in  their  hearts  and  their  brains,  by  day  and 
by  night.  They  realize,  as  you  can  not,  what  this 
problem  means — what  they  owe  to  this  kindly  and  de- 
pendent race — the  measure  of  their  debt  to  the  world 
in  whose  despite  they  defended  and  maintained  slav- 
ery. And  though  their  feet  are  hindered  in  -its  under- 
growth, and  their  march  encumbered  with  its  bur- 
dens, they  have  lost  neither  the  patience  from  which 
comes  clearness,  nor  the  faith  from  which  comes 
courage.  Nor,  sir,  when  in  passionate  moments  is 
•disclosed  to  them  that  vague  and  awful  shadow,  with 
its  lurid  abysses  and  its  crimson  stains,  into  which  I 
pray  God  they  may  never  go,  are  they  struck  with 
more  of  apprehension  than  is  needed  to  complete  their 
consecration ! 

Such  is  the  temper  of  my  people.  But  what  of  the 
problem  itself?  Mr.  President,  we  need  not  go  one 
step  further  unless  you  concede  right  here  the  people 
I  speak  for  are  as  honest,  as  sensible,  and  as  just  as 
your  people,  seeking  as  earnestly  as  you  would  in  their 
place,  to  rightly  solve  the  problem  that  touches  them 
at  every  vital  point.  If  you  insist  that  they  are  ruf- 
fians, blindly  striving  with  bludgeon  and  shotgun  to 
plunder  and  oppress  a  race,  then  I  shall  sacrifice  my 
self-respect  and  tax  your  patience  in  vain.  But  admit 
that  they  are  men  of  common  sense  and  common  hon- 
esty— wisely  modifying  an  environment  they  can  not 
wholly  disregard — guiding  and  controlling  as  best 
they  can  the  vicious  and  irresponsible  of  either  race — 


42  THE   BOSTON    BANQUET   SPEECH. 

compensating  error  with  frankness,  and  retrieving  in 
patience  what  they  lose  in  passion — and  conscious  all 
the  time  that  wrong  means  ruin — admit  this,  and  we 
may  reach  an  understanding  to-night. 

The  President  of  the  United  States,  in  his  late  mes- 
sage to  Congress,  discussing  the  plea  that  the  South 
should  be  left  to  solve  this  problem,  asks :  "Are  they 
at  work  upon  it ?  What  solution  do  they  offer?  When 
will  the  black  man  cast  a  free  ballot?  When  will  he 
have  the  civil  rights  that  are  his?"  I  shall  not  here 
protest  against  the  partisanry  that,  for  the  first  time 
in  our  history,  in  time  of  peace,  has  stamped  with  the 
great  seal  of  our  government  a  stigma  upon  the  peo- 
ple of  a  great  and  loyal  section,  though  I  gratefully 
remember  that  the  great  dead  soldier,  who  held  the 
helm  of  state  for  the  eight  stormy  years  of  reconstruc- 
tion, never  found  need  for  such  a  step;  and  though 
there  is  no  personal  sacrifice  I  would  not  make  to 
remove  this  cruel  and  unjust  imputation  on  my  peo- 
ple from  the  archives  of  my  country !  But,  sir,  backed 
by  a  record,  on  every  page  of  which  is  progress,  I 
venture  to  make  earnest  and  respectful  answer  to  the 
questions  that  are  asked.  I  bespeak  >our  patience, 
while,  with  vigorous  plainness  of  speech,  seeking  your 
judgment  rather  than  your  applause,  I  proceed,  step 
by  step.  We  give  to  the  world  this  year  a  crop  of 
7,500,000  bales  of  cotton,  worth  $45,000,000,  and  its 
cash  equivalent  in  grain,  grasses  and  fruit.  This 
enorumous  crop  could  not  have  come  from  the  hands 
of  sullen  and  discontented  labor.  It  comes  from 
peaceful  fields,  in  which  laughter  and  gossip  rise 
above  the  hum  of  industry,  and  contentment  runs 
with  the  singing  plow. 

It  is  claimed  that  this  ignorant  labor  is  defrauded 
of  its  just  hire.  I  present  the  tax  books  of  Georgia, 
which  show  that  the  negro,  twenty-five  years  ago  a 


THE    BOSTON    BANQUET   SPEECH.  43 

slave,  has  in  Georgia  alone,  $10,000,000  of  assessed 
property,  worth  twice  that  much.  Does  not  that  rec- 
ord honor  him,  and  vindicate  his  neighbors?  What 
people,  penniless,  illiterate,  has  done  so  well?  For 
every  Afro-American  agitator,  stirring  the  strife  in 
which  alone  he  prospers,  I  can  show  you  a  thousand 
negroes,  happy  in  their  cabin  homes,  tilling  their  own 
land  by  day,  and  at  night  taking  from  the  lips  of  their 
children  the  helpful  message  their  State  sends  them 
from  the  schoolhouse  door.  And  the  schoolhouse 
itself  bears  testimony.  In  Georgia  we  added  last  year 
$250,000  to  the  school  fund,  making  a  total  of  more 
than  $1,000,000 — and  this  in  the  face  of  prejudice  not 
yet  conquered — of  the  fact  that  the  whites  are  assessed 
for  $368,000,000,  the  blacks  for  $10,000,000,  and  yet 
forty-nine  per  cent  of  the  beneficiaries  are  black  chil- 
dren— and  in  the  doubt  of  many  wise  men  if  education 
helps,  or  can  help,  our  problem.  Charleston,  with  her 
taxable  values  cut  half  in  two  since  1860,  pays  more 
in  proportion  for  public  schools  than  Boston.  Al- 
though it  is  easier  to  give  much  out  of  much  than 
little  out  of  little,  the  South,  with  one-seventh  of  the 
taxable  property  of  the  country,  with  relatively  larger 
debt,  having  received  only  one-twelfth  as  much  public 
land,  and  having  back  of  its  tax-books  none  of  the 
half  billion  of  bonds  that  enrich  the  North — and 
though  it  pays  annually  $26,000,000  to  your  section 
as  pensions,  yet  gives  nearly  one-sixth  of  the  public 
school  fund.  The  South,  since  1865,  has  spent  $122,- 
000,000  in  education,  and  this  year  is  pledged  to  $37,- 
000,000  for  State  and  city  schools,  although  the  blacks, 
paying  one-thirtieth  of  the  taxes,  get  nearly  one-half 
of  the  fund. 

Go  into  our  fields  and  see  whites  and  blacks  work- 
ing side  by  side.  On  our  buildings  in  the  same 
squad.  In  our  shops  at  the  same  forge.  Often  the 


44  THE    BOSTON    BANQUET   SPEECH. 

blacks  crowd  the  whites  from  work,  or  lower  wages 
by  the  greater  need  or  simpler  habits,  and  yet  are 
permitted  because  we  want  to  bar  them  from  no 
avenue  in  which  their  feet  are  fitted  to  tread.  They 
could  not  there  be  elected  orators  of  the  white  uni- 
versities, as  they  have  been  here,  but  they  do  enter 
there  a  hundred  useful  trades  that  are  closed  against 
them  here.  We  hold  it  better  and  wiser  to  tend  the 
weeds  in  the  garden  than  to  water  the  exotic  in  the 
window.  In  the  South,  there  are  negro  lawyers,  teach- 
ers, editors,  dentists,  doctors,  preachers,  multiplying 
with  the  increasing  ability  of  their  race  to  support 
them.  In  villages  and  towns  they  have  their  military 
companies  equipped  from  the  armories  of  the  State, 
their  churches  and  societies  built  and  supported  large- 
ly by  their  neighbors.  What  is  the  testimony  of  the 
courts  In  penal  legislation  we  have  steadily  reduced 
felonies  to  misdemeanors,  and  have  led  the  world  in 
mitigating  punishment  for  crime,  that  we  might  save, 
as  far  as  possible,  this  dependent  race  from  its  own 
weakness.  In  our  penitentiary  record  sixty  per  cent, 
of  the  prosecutors  are  negroes,  and  in  every  court  the 
negro  criminal  strikes  the  colored  juror,  that  white 
men  may  judge  his  case.  In  the  North,  one  negro  in 
every  1,865  *s  m  Ja^ — m  the  South  only  one  in  446.  In 
the  North  the  percentage  of  negro  prisoners  is  six 
times  as  great  as  native  whites — in  the  South,  only 
four  times  as  great.  If  prejudice  wrongs  him  in 
Southern  courts,  the  record  shows  it  to  be  deeper  in 
Northern  courts. 

I  assert  here,  and  a  bar  as  intelligent  and  upright 
as  the  bar  of  Massachusetts  will  solemnly  indorse  my 
assertion,  that  in  the  Southern  courts,  from  highest  to 
lowest,  pleading  for  life,  liberty  or  property,  the  ne- 
gro has  distinct  advantage  because  he  is  a  negro,  apt 
to  be  overreached,  oppressed — and  that  this  advantage 


THE    BOSTON    BANQUET    SPEECH.  45 

reaches  from  the  juror  in  making  his  verdict  to  the 
judge  in  measuring  his  sentence.  Now,  Mr.  Presi- 
dent, can  it  be  seriously  maintained  that  we  are  ter- 
rorizing the  people  from  whose  willing  hands  come 
every  year  $1,000,000,000  of  farm  crops?  Or  have 
robbed  a  people  who,  twenty-five  years  from  unre- 
warded slavery  have  amassed  in  one  State  $20,000,- 
ooo  of  property?  Or  that  we  intend  to  oppress  the 
people  we  are  arming  every  day?  Or  deceive  them 
when  we  are  educating  them  to  the  utmost  limit  of 
our  ability?  Or  outlaw  them  when  we  work  side  by 
side  with  them?  Or  re-enslave  them  under  legal 
forms  when  for  their  benefit  we  have  even  imprudently 
narrowed  the  limit  of  felonies  and  mitigated  the  se- 
verity of  law?  My  fellow  countrymen,  as  you  your- 
self may  sometimes  have  to  appeal  to  the  bar  of  hu- 
man judgment  for  justice  and  for  right,  give  to  my 
people  to-night  the  fair  and  unanswerable  conclusion 
of  these  incontestible  facts. 

But  it  is  claimed  that  under  this  fair  seeming  there 
is  disorder  and  violence.  This  I  admit.  And  there 
will  be  until  there  is  one  ideal  community  on  earth 
after  which  we  may  pattern.  But  how  widely  it  is 
misjudged !  It  is  hard  to  measure  with  exactness 
whatever  touches  the  negro.  His  helplessness,  his 
isolation,  his  century  of  servitude,  these  dispose  us  to 
emphasize  and  magnify  his  wrongs.  This  disposition, 
inflamed  by  prejudice  and  partisanry,  has  led  to  in- 
justice and  delusion.  Lawless  men  may  ravage  a 
county  in  Iowa  and  it  is  accepted  as  an  incident — in 
the  South  a  drunken  row  is  declared  to  be  the  fixed 
habit  of  the  community.  Regulators  may  whip  vaga- 
bonds in  Indiana  by  platoons,  and  it  scarcely,  arrests 
attention — a  chance  collision  in  the  South  among 
relatively  the  same  classes  is  gravely  accepted  as  evi- 
dence that  one  race  is  destroying  the  other.  We 


46  THE    BOSTON    BANQUET    SPEECH. 

might  as  well  claim  that  the  Union  was  ungrateful 
to  the  colored  soldiers  who  followed  its  flag,  because 
a  Grand  Army  post  in  Connecticut  closed  its  doors 
to  a  negro  veteran,  as  for  you  to  give  racial  signifi- 
cance to  every  incident  in  the  South,  or  to  accept  ex- 
ceptional grounds  as  the  rule  of  our  society.  I  am  not 
one  of  those  who  becloud  American  honor  with  the 
parade  of  the  outrages  of  either  section,  and  belie 
.  American  character  by  declaring  them  to  be  significant 
and  representative.  I  prefer  to  maintain  that  they  are 
neither,  and  stand  for  nothing  but  the  passion  and  the 
sin  of  our  poor  fallen  humanity.  If  society,  like  a 
machine,  were  no  stronger  than  its  weakest  part,  I 
should  despair  of  both  sections.  But,  knowing  that 
society,  sentient  and  responsible  in  every  fibre,  can 
mend  and  repair  until  the  whole  has  the  strength  of 
the  best,  I  despair  of  neither.  These  gentlemen  who 
•come  with  me  here,  knit  into  Georgia's  busy  life  as 
they  are,  never  saw,  I  dare  assert,  an  outrage  commit- 
ted on  a  negro !  And  if  they  did,  not  one  of  you  would 
be  swifter  to  prevent  or  punish.  It  is  through  them, 
and  the  man  who  thinks  with  them — making  nine- 
tenths  of  every  Southern  community — that  these  two 
races  have  been  carried  thus  far  with  less  of  violence 
than  would  have  been  possible  anywhere  else  on  earth. 
And  in  their  fairness  and  courage  and  steadfastness — 
more  than  in  all  the  laws  that  can  be  passed,  or  all 
the  bayonets  that  can  be  mustered — is  the  hope  of  our 
future. 

When  will  the  black  cast  a  free  ballot?  When  ig- 
norance anywhere  is  not  dominated  by  the  will  of  the 
intelligent;  when  the  laborer  anywhere  casts  a  vote 
unhindered  by  his  boss ;  when  the  vote  of  the  poor  any- 
where is  not  influenced  by  the  power  of  the  rich; 
when  the  strong  and  the  steadfast  do  not  everywhere 
control  the  suffrage  of  the  weak  and  shiftless — then, 


THE    BOSTON    BANQUET    SPEECH.  47 

and  not  till  then,  will  the  ballot  of  the  negro  be  free. 
The  white  people  of  the  South  are  banded,  Mr.  Presi- 
dent, not  in  prejudice  against  the  blacks — not  in  sec- 
tional estrangement,  not  in  the  hope  of  political  do- 
minion, but  in  a  deep  and  abiding  necessity.  Here 
is  this  vast  ignorant  and  purchasable  vote — clannish, 
credulous,  impulsive  and  passionate — tempting  every 
art  of  the  demagogue,  but  insensible  to  the  appeal  of 
the  statesman.  Wrongly  started,  in  that  it  was  led  into 
alienation  from  its  neighbor  and  taught  to  rely  on 
the  protection  of  an  outside  force,  it  can  not  be  merged 
and  lost  in  the  two  great  parties  through  logical  cur- 
rents, for  it  lacks  political  conviction  and  even  that 
information  on  which  conviction  must  be  based.  It 
must  remain  a  faction — strong  enough  in  every  com- 
munity to  control  on  the  slightest  division  of  the 
whites.  Under  that  division  it  becomes  the  prey  of 
the  cunning  and  unscrupulous  of  both  parties.  Its 
credulity  is  imposed  on,  its  patience  inflamed,  its  cu- 
pidity tempted,  its  impulses  misdirected — and  even 
its  superstition  made  to  play  its  part  in  a  campaign 
in  which  every  interest  of  society  is  jeopardized  and 
every  approach  to  the  ballot-box  debauched.  It  is 
against  such  campaigns  as  this — the  folly  and  the 
bitterness  and  the  danger  of  which  every  Southern 
community  has  drunk  deeply — that  the  white  people 
of  the  South  are  banded  together.  Just  as  you  in  Mas- 
sachusetts would  be  banded  if  300,000  black  men — 
not  one  in  a  hundred  able  to  read  his  ballot — banded 
in  a  race  instinct,  holding  against  you  the  memory 
of  a  century  of  slavery,  taught  by  your  late  conquer- 
ors to  distrust  and  oppose  you,  had  already  travestied 
legislation  from  your  statehouse,  and  in  every  species 
of  folly  or  villainy  has  wasted  your  substance  and  ex- 
hausted your  credit. 

But  admitting   the   right  of  the   whites   to   unite 


48  THE    BOSTON    BANQUET    SPEECH. 

against  this  tremendous  menace,  we  are  challenged 
with  the  smallness  of  our  vote.  This  has  long  been 
flippantly  charged  to  the  evidence,  and  has  now  been 
solemnly  and  officially  declared  to  be  proof  of  political 
turpitude  and  baseness  on  our  part.  Let  us  see.  Vir- 
ginia— a  State  now  under  fierce  assault  for  this  al- 
leged'crime — cast,  in  1888,  seventy-five  per  cent,  of 
her  vote.  Was  it  suppression  in  Virginia  and  natural 
causes  in  Massachusetts?  Last  month  Virginia  cast 
sixty-nine  per  cent,  of  her  vote,  and  Massachusetts, 
fighting  in  every  district,  cast  only  forty-six  per  cent, 
of  hers.  If  Virginia  is  condemned  because  thirty-one 
per  cent,  of  her  vote  was  silent,  how  shall  this  State 
escape  in  which  fifty-one  per  cent,  was  dumb?  Lei 
us  enlarge  this  comparison.  The  sixteen  Southern 
States  in  1888  cast  sixty-seven  per  cent,  of  their  total 
vote — the  six  New  England  States  but  sixty-three  per 
cent,  of  theirs.  By  what  fair  rule  shall  the  stigma  be 
put  upon  one  section,  while  the  other  escapes?  A 
congressional  election  in  New  York  last  week,  with 
the  polling-place  within  touch  of  every  voter,  brought 
out  only  6,000  votes  of  28,000 — and  the  lack  of  oppo- 
sition is  assigned  as  the  natural  cause.  In  a  district  in 
my  State,  in  which  an  opposition  speech  has  not  been 
heard  in  ten  years,  and  the  polling-places  are  miles 
apart — under  the  unfair  reasoning  of  which  my  sec- 
tion has  been  a  constant  victim — the  small  vote  is 
charged  to  be  proof  of  forcible  suppression.  In  Vir- 
ginia an  average  majority  of  10,000,  under  hopeless 
division  of  the  minority,  was  raised  to  42,000;  in 
Iowa,  in  the  same  election,  a  majority  of  32,000  was 
wiped  out,  and  an  opposition  majority  of  8,000  was 
established.  The  change  of  42,000  votes  in  Iowa  is 
accepted  as  political  revolution — in  Virginia  an  in- 
crease of  30,000  on  a  safe  majority  is  declared  to  be 
proof  of  political  fraud.  I  charge  these  facts  and  fig- 


THE    BOSTON    BANQUET    SPEECH.  49 

tires  home,  sir,  to  the  heart  and  conscience  of  the 
American  people,  who  will  not  assuredly  see  one  sec- 
tion condemned  for  what  another  section  is  excused ! 

If  I  can  drive  them  through  the  prejudice  of  the 
partisan,  and  have  them  read  and  pondered  at  the  fire- 
side of  the  citizen,  I  will  rest  on  the  judgment  there 
formed  and  the  verdict  there  rendered ! 

It  is  deplorable,  sir,  that  in  both  sections  a  larger 
percentage  of  the  vote  is  not  regularly  cast,  but  more 
inexplicable  that  this  should  be  so  in  New  England 
than  in  the  South.  What  invites  the  negro  to  the 
ballot-box?  He  knows  that,  of  all  men,  it  has  promised 
him  most  and  yielded  him  least.  His  first  appeal  tq 
suffrage  was  the  promise  of  "forty  acres  and  a  mule.'' 
His  second,  the  threat  that  Democratic  success  meant 
his  re-enslavement.  Both  have  proved  false  in  his 
experience.  He  looked  for  a  home,  and  he  got  the 
Freedman's  Bank.  He  fought  under  the  promise  of  the 
loaf,  and  in  victory  was  denied  the  crumbs.  Dis- 
couraged and  deceived,  he  has  realized  at  last  that  his 
best  friends  are  his  neighbors,  with  whom  his  lot  is 
cast,  and  whose  prosperity  is  bound  up  in  his — and 
that  he  has  gained  nothing  in  politics  to  compensate 
the  loss  of  their  confidence  and  sympathy  that  is  at 
last  his  best  and  his  enduring  hope.  And  so,  without 
leaders  or  organization — and  lacking  the  resolute 
heroism  of  my  party  friends  in  Vermont,  that 
makes  their  hopeless  march  over  the  hills  a  high  and 
inspiring  pilgrimage — he  shrewdly  measures  the  oc- 
casional agitator,  balances  his  little  account  with  poli- 
tics, touches  up  his  mule  and  jogs  down  the  furrow, 
letting  the  mad  world  jog  as  it  will ! 

Trie  negro  vote  can  never  control  in  the  South,  and 
it  would  be  well  if  partisans  in  the  North  would  un- 
derstand this.  I  have  seen  the  white  people  of  a  State 
set  about  by  black  hosts  until  their  fate  seemed  sealed. 

4ns 


50  THE    BOSTON    BANQUET   SPEECH. 

But,  sir,  some  brave  man,  banding  them  together, 
would  rise,  as  Elijah  rose  in  beleagured  Samaria,  and, 
touching  their  eyes  with  faith,  bid  them  look  abroad 
to  see  the  very  air  "filled  with  the  chariots  of  Israel 
and  the  horsemen  thereof."  If  there  is  any  human 
force  that  can  not  be  withstood,  it  is  the  power  of  the 
banded  intelligence  and  responsibility  of  a  free  com- 
munity. Against  it,  numbers  and  corruption  can  not 
prevail.  It  can  not  be  forbidden  in  the  law  or  di- 
vorced in  force.  It  is  the  inalienable  right  of  every 
free  community — and  the  just  and  righteous  safe- 
guard against  an  ignorant  or  corrupt  suffrage.  It  is 
on  this,  sir,  that  we  rely  in  the  South.  Not  the  cow- 
ardly menace  of  mask  or  shotgun,  but  the  peaceful 
majesty  of  intelligence  and  responsibility,  massed  and 
unified  for  the  protection  of  its  homes  and  the  pre- 
servation of  its  homes  and  the  preservation  of  its  lib- 
erty*' That,  sir,  is  our  reliance  and  our  hope,  and 
against  it  all  the  powers  of  the  earth  shall  not  prevail. 
It  was  just  as  certain  that  Virginia  would  come  back 
to  the  unchallenged  control  of  her  white  race — that 
before  the  moral  and  material  power  of  her  people* 
once  more  unified,  opposition  would  crumble  until  its 
last  desperate  leader  was  left  alone  vainly  striving  to 
rally  his  disordered  hosts — as  that  night  should  fade 
in  the  kindling  glory  of  the  sun.  You  may  pass  force 
bills,  but  they  will  not  avail.  You  may  surrender  your 
liberties  to  Federal  election  law,  you  may  submit,  in 
fear  of  a  necessity  that  does  not  exist,  that  the  very 
form  of  this  government  may  be  changed — this  old 
State  that  holds  in  its  charter  the  boast  that  "it  is  a 
free  and  independent  commonwealth" — it  may  de- 
liver its  election  machinery  into  the  hands  of  the  gov- 
ernment it  helped  to  create — but  never,  sir,  will  a  sin- 
gle State  in  this  Union,  North  or  South,  be  delivered 
again  to  the  control  of  an  ignorant  and  inferior  race.. 


THE    BOSTON    BANQUET    SPEECH.  51 

We  wrested  our  State  government  from  negro  su- 
premacy when  the  Federal  drumbeat  rolled  closer  to 
•the  ballot-box  and  Federal  bayonets  hedged  it  deeper 
about  than  will  ever  again  be  permitted  in  this  free 
government.  But,  sir,  though  the  cannon  of  this  Re- 
public thundered  in  every  voting  district  of  the  South, 
we  still  should  find  in  the  mercy  of  God  the  means  and 
the  courage  to  prevent  its  re-establishment ! 

I  regret,  sir,  that  my  section,  hindered  with  this 
problem,  stands  in  seeming  estrangement  to  the 
North.  If,  sir,  any  man  will  point  out  to  me  a  path 
•down  which  the  white  people  of  the  South  divided 
may  walk  in  peace  and  honor,  I  will  take  that  path 
though  I  took  it  alone — for  at  the  end,  and  nowhere 
else,  I  fear,  is  to  be  found  the  full  prosperity  of  my 
.section  and  the  full  restoration  of  this  Union.  But, 
sir,  if  the  negro  had  not  been  enfranchised,  the  South 
would  have  been  divided  and  the  Republic  holds  the 
South  united  and  compact.  What  solution,  then,  can 
we  offer  for  this  problem  ?  Time  alone  can  disclose  it 
to  us.  We  simply  report  progress  and  ask  your  pa- 
tience. If  the  problem  be  solved  at  all — and  I  firmly 
believe  it  will,  though  nowhere  else  has  it  been — it 
will  be  solved  by  the  people  most  deeply  bound  in 
interest,  most  deeply  pledged  in  honor  to  its  solution. 
I  had  rather  see  my  people  render  back  this  question 
rightly  solved  than  to  see  them  gather  all  the  spoils 
over  which  faction  has  contended  since  Catiline  con- 
spired and  Caesar  fought.  Meantime  we  treat  the  ne- 
gro fairly,  measuring  to  him  justice  in  the  fullness 
the  strong  should  give  to  the  weak,  and  leading  him 
in  the  steadfast  ways  of  citizenship  that  he  may  no 
longer  be  the  prey  of  the  unscrupulous  and  the  sport 
of  the  thoughtless.  We  open  to  him  every  pursuit  in 
which  he  can  prosper,  and  seek  to  broaden  his  training 
.and  capacity.  We  seek  to  hold  his  confidence  and 


52  THE    BOSTON    BANQUET    SPEECH. 

friendship,  and  to  pin  him  to  the  soil  with  ownership,, 
that  he  may  catch  in  the  fire  of  his  own  hearthstone 
that  sense  of  responsibility  the  shiftless  can  never 
know.  And  we  gather  him  into  that  alliance  of  in- 
telligence and  responsibility  that,  though  it  now  runs 
close  to  racial  lines,  welcomes  the  responsible  and  in- 
telligent of  any  race.  By  this  course,  confirmed  in 
our  judgment  and  justified  in  the  progress  already 
made,  we  hope  to  progress  slowly  but  surely  to  the 
end. 

The  love  we  feel  for  that  race  you  can  not  measure 
nor  comprehend.  As  I  attest  it  here,  the  spirit  of  my 
old  black  mammy  from  her  home  up  there  looks  down 
to  bless,  and  through  the  tumult  of  this  night  steals 
the  sweet  music  of  her  crooning  as  thirty  years  ago 
she  held  me  in  her  black  arms  and  led  me  smiling  into 
sleep.  This  scene  vanishes  as  I  speak,  snd  I  catch  a 
vision  of  an  old  Southern  home,  with  its  lofty  pillars, 
and  its  white  pigeons  fluttering  down  through  the 
golden  air.  I  see  women  with  strained  and  anxious 
faces,  and  children  alert,  yet  helpless.  I  see  night 
come  down  with  its  dangers  and  its  apprehensions, 
and  in  a  big  homely  room  I  feel  on  my  tired  head  the 
touch  of  loving  hands — now  worn  and  wrinkled,  but 
fairer  to  me  yet  than  the  hands  of  mortal  woman,  and 
stronger  yet  to  lead  me  than  the  hands  of  mortal  man 
— as  they  lay  a  mother's  blessing  there  while  at  her 
knees — the  truest  altar  I  yet  have  found — I  thank  God 
that  she  is  safe  in  her  sanctuary,  because  her  slaves, 
sentinel  in  the  silent  cabin  or  guard  at  her  chamber 
door,  puts  a  black  man's  loyalty  between  her  and  dan- 
ger. 

I  catch  another  vision.  The  crisis  of  battle — a  sol- 
dier struck,  staggering,  fallen.  I  see  a  slave,  scuffling 
through  the  smoke,  winding  his  black  arms  about  the 
fallen  form,  reckless  of  the  hurtling  death — bending 


THE    BOSTON    BANQUET    SPEECH.  53 

his  trusty  face  to  catch  the  words  that  tremble  on  the 
stricken  lips,  so  wrestling  meantime  with  agony  that 
he  would  lay  down  his  life  in  his  master's  stead.  I 
see  him  by  the  weary  bedside,  ministering  with  un- 
complaining patience,  praying  with  all  his  humble 
heart  that  God  will  lift  his  master  up,  until  death 
come  in  mercy  and  in  honor  to  still  the  soldier's 
agony  and  seal  the  soldier's  life.  I  see  him  by  the 
open  grave,  mute,  motionless,  uncovered,  suffering 
for  the  death  of  him  who  in  life  fought  against  his  free- 
•dom.  I  see  him  when  the  mound  is  heaped  and  the 
great  drama  of  his  life  is  closed,  turn  away,  and  with 
•downcast  eyes  and  uncertain  step  start  out  into  new 
and  strange  fields,  faltering,  struggling,  but  moving 
on,  until  his  shambling  figure  is  lost  in  the  light  of 
this  better  and  brighter  day.  And  from  the  grave 
•comes  a  voice  saying:  "Follow  him!  Put  your  arms 
.about  him  in  his  need,  even  as  he  put  his  about  me. 
Be  his  friend  as  he  was  mine."  And  out  into  this  new 
world — strange  to  me  as  to  him,  dazzling,  bewilder- 
ing both — I  follow !  And  may  God  forget  my  peoples 
— when  they  forget  these. 

Whatever  the  future  may  hold  for  them — whether 
they  plod  along  in  the  servitude  from  which  they 
have  never  been  lifted  since  the  Cyrenian  was  laid 
hold  upon  by  the  Roman  soldiers  and  made  to  bear 
the  cross  of  the  fainting  Christ — whether  they  find 
homes  again  in  Africa,  and  thus  hasten  the  prophecy 
of  the  psalmist  who  said:  "And  suddenly  Ethiopia 
shall  hold  out  her  hands  unto  God" — whether  forever 
dislocated  and  separated,  they  remain  a  weak  people 
beset  by  stronger,  and  exist  as  the  Turk,  who  lives 
in  the  jealousy  rather  than  in  the  conscience  of  Eu- 
rope— or  whether  in  this  miraculous  Repubic  they 
break  through  the  caste  of  twenty  centuries  and,  be- 
lying universal  history,  reach  the  full  stature  of  citi- 


54  THE    BOSTON    BANQUET   SPEECH. 

zenship,  and  in  peace  maintain  it — we  shall  give  them* 
uttermost  justice  and  abiding  friendship.  And  what- 
ever we  do,  into  whatever  seeming  estrangement  we 
may  be  driven,  nothing  shall  disturb  the  love  we  bear 
this  Republic,  or  mitigate  our  consecration  to  its  serv- 
ice. I  stand  here,  Mr.  President,  to  profess  no  new- 
loyalty.  When  General  Lee,  whose  heart  was  the  tem- 
ple of  our  hopes,  and  whose  arm  was  clothed  with  our 
strength,  renewed  his  allegiance  to  the  government  at 
Appomattox,  he  spoke  from  a  heart  too  great  to  be 
false,  and  he  spoke  for  every  honest  man  from  Mary- 
land to  Texas.  From  that  day  to  this,  Hamilcar 
has  nowhere  in  the  South  sworn  young  Hannibal  to- 
hatred  and  vengeance — but  everywhere  to  loyalty  and 
to  love.  Witness  the  soldier  standing  at  the  base  of  a 
Confederate  monument  above  the  graves  of  his  com- 
rades, his  empty  sleeve  tossing  in  the  April  wind,  ad- 
juring the  young  men  about  him  to  serve  as  honest 
and  loyal  citizens  the  government  against  which  their 
fathers  fought.  This  message,  delivered  from  that 
sacred  presence,  has  gone  home  to  the  hearts  of  my 
fellows !  And,  sir,  I  declare  here,  if  physical  courage 
be  always  equal  to  human  aspiration,  that  they  would 
die,  sir,  if  need  be,  to  restore  this  Republic  their  fath- 
ers fought  to  dissolve ! 

Such,  Mr.  President,  is  this  problem,  as  we  see  it," 
such  is  the  temper  in  which  we  approach  it ;  such  the 
progress  made.  What  do  we  ask  of  you?  First,  pa- 
tience ;  out  of  this  alone  can  come  perfect  work.  Sec- 
ond, confidence;  in  this  alone  can  you  judge  fairly. 
Third,  sympathy ;  in  this  you  can  help  us  best.  Fourth, 
give  us  your  sons  as  hostages.  When  you  plant  your 
capital  in  millions,  send  your  sons  that  they  may  help 
know  how  true  are  our  hearts  and  may  help  to  swell 
the  Anglo-Saxon  current  until  it  can  carry  without 
danger  this  black  infusion.  Fifth,  loyalty  to  the  Re- 


THE    BOSTON    BANQUET    SPEECH.  55 

public — for  there  is  sectionalism  in  loyalty  as  in  es- 
trangement. This  hour  little  needs  the  loyalty  that  is 
loyal  to  one  section  and  yet  holds  the  other  in  endur- 
ing suspicion  and  estrangement.  Give  us  the  broad 
and  perfect  loyalty  that  loves  and  trusts  Georgia  alike 
with  Massachusetts — that  knows  no  South,  no  North, 
no  East,  no  West;  but  endears  with  equal  and  patri- 
otic love  every  foot  of  our  soil,  every  State  of  our 
Union. 

A  mighty  duty,  sir,  and  a  mighty  inspiration  impels 
every  one  of  us  to-night  to  lose  in  patriotic  consecra- 
tion whatever  estranges,  whatever  divides.  We,  sir, 
are  Americans — and  we  fight  for  human  liberty.  The 
uplifting  force  of  the  American  idea  is  under  every 
throne  on  earth.  France,  Brazil — these  are  our  victo- 
ries. To  redeem  the  earth  from  kingcraft  and  oppres- 
sion— this  is  our  mission.  And  we  shall  not  fail.  God 
has  sown  in  our  soil  the  seed  of  his  millennial  harvest, 
and  he  will  not  lay  the  sickle  to  the  ripening  crop  until 
his  full  and  perfect  day  has  come.  Our  history,  sir, 
has  been  a  constant  and  expanding  miracle  from  Ply- 
mouth Rock  and  Jamestown  all  the  way — aye,  even 
from  the  hour  when,  from  the  voiceless  and  trackless 
ocean,  a  new  world  rose  to  the  sight  of  the  inspired 
sailor.  As  we  approach  the  fourth  centennial  of  that 
stupendous  day — when  the  old  world  will  come  to 
marvel  and  to  learn,  amid  our  gathered  treasures — let 
us  resolve  to  crown  the  miracles  of  our  past  with  the 
spectacle  of  a  republic  compact,  united,  indissoluble  in 
the  bonds  of  love — loving  from  the  Lakes  to  the  Gulf 
— the  wounds  of  war  healed  in  every  heart  as  on  every 
hill — serene  and  resplendent  at  the  summit  of  human 
achievement  and  earthly  glory — blazing  out  the  path, 
and  making  clear  the  way  up  which  all  the  nations  of 
the  earth  must  come  in  God's  appointed  time ! 


BUT  WHAT  OF  THE  NEGRO. 


EXCERPTS  FROM  THE  NEW  SOUTH  SPEECH  DELIVERED  BY 

HENRY  W.  GRADY  AT  THE  BANQUET  OF  THE  NEW 

ENGLAND  CLUB,  NEW  YORK. 


It  is  a  rare  privilege,  sir,  to  have  had  part,  however 
humble,  in  this  work.  Never  was  nobler  duty  con- 
fided to  human  hands  than  the  uplifting  and  upbuild- 
ing of  the  prostrate  and  bleeding  South — misguided, 
perhaps,  but  beautiful  in  her  suffering,  and  honest, 
brave  and  generous  always.  In  the  record  of  her  so- 
cial, industrial  and  political  illustration  we  await  witn 
confidence  the  verdict  of  the  world. 

Have  we  solved  the  problem  he  presents  or  pro- 
gressed in  honor  and  equity  toward  solution?  Let 
the  record  speak  to  the  point.  No  section  shows  a 
more  prosperous  laboring  population  than  the  ne- 
groes of  the  South,  none  in  fuller  sympathy  with  the 
employing  and  land-owning  class.  He  shares  our 
school  fund,  has  the  fullest  protection  of  our  laws  and 
the  friendship  of  our  people.  Self-interest,  as  well  as 
honor,  demand  that  he  should  have  this.  Our  future 
our  very  existence  depend  upon  our  working  out  this 
problem  in  full  and  exact  justice.  We  understand 
that  when  Lincoln  signed  the  emancipation  proclama- 
tion, your  victory  was  assured,  for  he  then  committed 
you  to  the  cause  of  human  liberty,  against  which  the 
arms  of  man  can  not  prevail — while  those  of  our 
statesmen  who  trusted  to  make  slavery  the  corner- 
stone of  the  Confederacy  doomed  us  to  defeat  as  far 
as  they  could,  committing  us  to  a  cause  that  reason 

(56) 


BUT    WHAT    OF    THE    NEGRO.  57 

•could  not  defend  or  the  sword  maintain  in  sight  of 
advancing  civilization. 

Had  Mr.  Toombs  said,  which  he  did  not  say,  "that 
he  would  call  the  roll  of  his  slaves  at  the  foot  of  Bun- 
ker Hill,"  he  would  have  been  foolish,  for  he  might 
have  known  that  whenever  slavery  became  entangled 
in  war  it  must  perish,  and  that  the  chattel  in  human 
flesh  ended  forever  in  New  England  when  your  fathers 
— not  to  be  blamed  for  parting  with  what  didn't  pay— 
.sold  their  slaves  to  our  fathers — not  to  be  praised  for 
knowing  a  paying  thing  when  they  saw  it.  The  rela- 
tions of  the  Southern  people  with  the  negro  are  close 
and  cordial.  We  remember  with  what  fidelity  for  four 
years  he  guarded  our  defenseless  women  and  children, 
whose  husbands  and  fathers  were  righting  against  his 
freedom.  To  his  eternal  credit  be  it  said  that  when- 
ever he  struck  a  blow  for  his  own  liberty  he  fought  in 
-open  battle,  and  when  at  last  he  raised  his  black  and 
humble  hands  that  the  shackles  might  be  struck  off, 
those  hands  were  innocent  of  wrong  against  his  help- 
less charges,  and  worthy  to  be  taken  in  loving  grasp 
by  every  man  who  honors  loyalty  and  devotion.  Ruf- 
fians have  maltreated  him,  rascals  have  misled  him, 
philanthropists  established  a  bank  for  him,  but  the 
South,  with  the  North,  protests  against  injustice  to 
this  simple  and  sincere  people.  To  liberty  and  en- 
franchisement is  as  far  as  law  can  carry  the  negro. 
The  rest  must  be  left  to  the  conscience  and  common 
sense.  It  must  be  left  to  those  among  whom  his  lot 
is  cast,  with  whom  he  is  indissolubly  connected,  and 
whose  prosperity  depends  upon  their  possessing  his 
intelligent  sympathy  and  confidence.  Faith  has  been 
kept  with  him,  in  spite  of  calumnious  assertions  to  the 
contrary  by  those  who  assume  to  speak  for  us  or  by 
frank  opponents.  Faith  will  be  kept  with  him  in  the 
future,  if  the  South  hold  her  reason  and  integrity. 


58  BUT    WHAT    OF    THE    NEGRO. 

But  have  we  kept  our  faith  with  you?  In  the  fullest 
sense,  yes.  When  Lee  surrendered — I  don't  say  when 
Johnson  surrendered,  because  I  understand  he  still 
alludes  to  the  time  when  he  met  General  Sherman  last 
as  the  time  when  he  determined  to  abandon  any  fur- 
ther prosecution  of  the  struggle — when  Lee  surren- 
dered, I  say,  and  Johnson  quit,  the  South  became,, 
and  has  since  been,  loyal  to  this  Union.  We  fought 
hard  enough  to  know  that  we  were  whipped,  and  in 
perfect  frankness  accept  as  final  the  arbitrament  of 
the  sword  to  which  we  had  appealed.  The  South 
found  her  jewel  in  the  toad's  head  of  defeat.  The 
shackles  that  had  held  her  in  narrow  limitations  fell 
forever  when  the  shackles  of  the  negro  slave  were 
broken.  Under  the  old  regime  the  negroes  were 
slaves  to  the  South ;  the  South  was  a  slave  to  the  sys- 
tem. The  old  plantation,  with  its  simple  police  regu- 
lations and  feudal  habit,  was  the  only  type  possible 
under  slavery.  Thus  was  gathered  in  the  hands  of  a 
splendid  and  chivalric  oligarchy  the  substance  that 
should  have  been  diffused  among  the  people,  as  the 
rich  blood,  under  certain  artificial  conditions,  is  gath- 
ered at  the  heart,  filling  that  with  affluent  rapture  but 
leaving  the  body  chill  and  colorless. 


WHAT  OF  THE   NEGRO. 


EXCERPTS  FROM  "THE  SOUTH  AND  HER  PROBLEMS," 

DELIVERED  AT  THE  DALLAS  STATE  FAIR  BY 

HENRY  W.  GRADY. 


This  of  him.  I  want  no  better  friend  than  the  black 
boy  who  was  raised  by  my  side,  and  who  is  now 
trudging  patiently  with  downcast  eyes  and  shambling 
figure  through  his  lowly  way  in  life.  I  want  no 
sweeter  music  than  the  crooning  of  my  old  "mammy," 
now  dead  and  gone  to  rest,  as  I  heard  it  when  she 
held  me  in  her  loving  arms,  and  bending  her  old  black 
face  above  me  stole  the  cares  from  my  brain,  and  led 
me  smiling  into  sleep.  I  want  no  truer  soul  than  that 
which  moved  the  trusty  slave,  who  for  four  years 
while  my  father  fought  with  the  armies  that  barred 
his  freedom,  slept  every  night  at  my  mother's  cham- 
ber door,  holding  her  and  her  children  as  safe  as  if 
her  husband  stood  guard,  and  ready  to  lay  down  his 
humble  life  on  her  threshold.  History  has  no  parallel 
to  the  faith  kept  by  the  negro  in  the  South 
during  the  war.  Often  five  hundred  negroes  to 
a  single  white  man,  and  yet  through  these  dusky 
throngs  the  women  and  children  walked  in  safety,  and 
the  unprotected  homes  rested  in  peace.  Unmar- 
shaled  the  black  battalions  moved  patiently  to  the 
fields  in  the  morning  to  feed  the  armies  their  idleness 
would  have  starved,  and  at  night  gathered  anxiously 
at  the  big  house  to  "hear  the  news  from  marster, ' 
though  conscious  that  his  victory  made  their  chains 
enduring.  Everywhere  humble  and  kindly ;  the  body- 

(59) 


60  WHAT    OF    THE    NEGRO. 

guard  of  the  helpless;  the  rough  companion  of  the 
little  ones;  the  observant  friend;  the  silent  sentry  in 
his  lowly  cabin;  the  shrewd  counsellor.  And  when 
the  dead  came  home,  a  mourner  at  the  open  grave. 
A  thousand  torches  would  have  disbanded  every 
Southern  army,  but  not  one  was  lighted.  When  the 
master  going  to  a  war  in  which  slavery  was  involved 
said  to  his  slave,  "I  leave  my  home  and  loved  ones  in 
your  charge,"  the  tenderness  between  man  and  mas- 
ter stood  disclosed.  And  when  the  slave  held  that 
charge  sacred  through  storm  and  temptation,  he  gave 
new  meaning  to  faith  and  loyalty.  I  rejoice  that  when 
freedom  came  to  him  after  years  of  waiting,  it  was  all 
the  sweeter  because  the  black  hands  from  which  the 
shackles  fell  were  stainless  of  a  single  crime  against 
the  helpless  ones  confided  to  his  care. 

From  this  root,  imbedded  in  a  century  of  kind  and 
constant  companionship,  has  sprung  some  foliage. 
As  no  race  had  ever  lived  in  such  unresisting  bond- 
age, none  was  ever  heard  with  such  swiftness 
through  freedom  into  power.  Into  hands  stili  trem- 
bling from  the  blow  that  broke  the  shackles,  was 
thrust  the  ballot.  In  less  than  twelve  months  from 
the  day  he  walked  down  the  furrow  a  slave,  the  negro 
dictated  in  legislative  halls  from  which  Davis  and 
Calhoun  had  gone  forth,  the  policy  of  twelve  com- 
monwealths. When  his  late  master  protested  against 
his  misrule,  the  federal  drum-beat  rolled  around  his 
strongholds,  and  from  a  hedge  of  federal  bayonets  he 
grinned  in  good-natured  insolence.  From  the  proven 
incapacity  of  that  day  has  he  far  advanced?  Simple, 
•credulous,  impulsive — easily  led  and  too  often  easily 
bought,  is  he  a  safer,  more  intelligent  citizen  now  than 
then  ?  Is  this  mass  of  votes,  loosed  from  old  restraints, 
inviting  alliance  or  awaiting  opportunity,  less  menac- 


WHAT   OF    THE    NEGRO.  61 

ing  than  when  its  purpose  was  plain  and  its  way  di- 
rect? 

My  countrymen,  right  here  the  South  must  make 
a  decision  on  which  very  much  depends.  Many  wise 
men  hold  that  the  white  vote  of  the  South  should  di- 
vide, the  color'line  be  beaten  down,  and  the  Southern 
States  ranged  on  economic  or  moral  questions  as  in- 
terest or  belief  demands.  I  am  compelled  to  dissent 
from  this  view.  The  worst  thing,  in  my/  opinion,  that 
could  happen  is  that  the  white  people  of  the  South 
should  stand  in  opposing  factions,  with  the  vast  mass 
of  ignorant  or  purchasable  negro  votes  between. 
Consider  such  a  status.  If  the  negroes  were  skillfully 
led — and  leaders  would  not  be  lacking — it  would 
give  them  the  balance  of  power — a  thing  not  to  be 
considered.  If  their  vote  was  not  compacted,  it  would 
invite  the  debauching  bid  of  factions,  and  drift  surely 
to  that  which  was  the  most  corrupt  and  cunning. 
With  the  shiftless  habit  and  irresolution  of  slavery 
days  still  possessing  him,  the  negro  voter  will  not  in 
this  generation,  adrift  from  war  issues,  become  a 
steadfast  partisan  through  conscience  or  conviction. 
In  every  community  there  are  colored  men  who  re- 
deem their  race  from  this  reproach,  and  who  vote  un- 
der reason.  Perhaps  in  time  the  bulk  of  this  race 
may  thus  adjust  itself.  But,  through  what  long  and 
monstrous  periods  of  political  debauchery  this  status 
would  be  reached,  no  tongue  can  tell. 

The  clear  and  unmistakable  domination  of  the  white 
race,  dominating  not  through  violence,  not  through 
party  alliance,  but  through  the  integrity  of  its  own 
vote  and  the  largeness  of  its  sympathv  and  justice 
through  which  it  shall  compel  the  support  of  the 
better  classes  of  the  colored  race — that  is  the  hope 
and  assurance  of  the  South.  Otherwise,  the  negro- 
would  be  bandied  from  one  faction  to  another.  His 


«62  WHAT   OF    THE    NEGRO. 

.credulity  would  be  played  upon,  his  cupidity  tempted, 
his  impulses  misdirected,  his  passions  inflamed.  He 
would  be  forever  in  alliance  with  that  faction  which 
was  most  desperate  and  unscrupulous.  Such  a  stare 
would  be  worse  than  reconstruction,  for  then  intelli- 
gence was  banded,  and  its  speedy  triumph  assured. 
But  with  intelligence  and  property  divided — bidding 
and  overbidding  for  place  and  patronage — irritation 
increasing  with  each  conflict — the  bitterness  and  des- 
peration seizing  every  heart — political  debauchery 
deepening,  as  each  faction  staked  its  all  in  the  miser- 
able game — there  would  be  no  end  in  this,  until  our 
suffrage  was  hopelessly  sullied,  our  people  forever  di- 
vided, and  our  most  sacred  rights  surrendered. 

One  thing  further  should  be  said  in  perfect  frank- 
ness. Up  to  this  point  we  have  dealt  with  ignorance 
.and  corruption — but  beyond  this  point  a  deeper  issue 
confronts  us.  Ignorance  may  struggle  to  enlighten- 
ment, out  of  corruption  may  come  the  incorruptible. 
God  speed  the  day  when — every  true  man  will  work 
and  pray  for  its  coming — the  negro  must  be  led  to 
know  and  through  sympathy  to  confess  that  his  in- 
terests and  the  interests  of  the  people  of  the  South 
are  identical.  The  men  who,  from  afar  off,  view  this 
.subject  through  the  cold  eye  of  speculation  or  see  it 
distorted  through  partisan  control  of  the  affairs  of  the 
South.  We  have  no  fears  of  this ;  already  we  are  at- 
taching to  us  the  best  elements  of  the  race,  and  as  we 
proceed  our  alliance  will  broaden;  eternal  pressure 
but  irritates  and  impedes.  Those  who  would  put  the 
negro  race  in  supremacy  would  work  against  infalli- 
ble decree,  for  the  white  race  can  never  submit  to  its 
domination,  because  the  white  race  is  the  superior 
race.  But  the  supremacy  of  the  white  race  of  the 
South  must  be  maintained  forever,  and  the  domina- 
.tion  of  the  negro  race  resisted  at  all  points  and  at  all 


VHAT    OF    THE    NEGRO.  63 

hazards — because  the  white  race  is  the  superior  race. 
This  is  the  declaration  of  no  new  truth.  It  has  abided 
forever  in  the  marrow  of  our  bones,  and  shall  run  for- 
ever with  the  blood  that  feeds  Anglo-Saxon  hearts. 

In  political  compliance  the  South  has  evaded  the 
truth, 'and  men  have  drifted  from  their  convictions. 
But  we  can  not  escape  this  issue.  It  faces  us  wherever 
we  turn.  It  is  an  issue  that  has  been,  and  will  be. 
The  races  and  tribes  of  earth  are  of  divine  origin. 
Behind  the  laws  of  man  and  the  decrees  of  war,  stands 
the  law  of  God.  What  God  hath  separated  let  no  man 
join  together.  The  Indian,  the  Malay,  the  Negro,  the 
Caucasian,  these  types  stand  as  markers  of  God's  will. 
Let  no  man  tinker  with  the  work  of  the  Almighty. 
Unity  of  civilization,  no  more  than  unity  of  faith,  will 
never  be  witnessed  on  earth.  No  race  has  risen,  or 
will  rise,  above  the  ordinary  place.  Here  is  the  piv- 
otal fact  of  this  great  matter — two  races  are  made 
equal  in  law,  and  in  political  rights,  between  whom 
,  the  caste  of  race  has  set  an  impassable  gulf.  This 
gulf  is  bridged  by  a  statute,  and  the  races  are  urged 
to  cross  thereon.  This  can  not  be.  The  fiat  of  the  Al- 
mighty has  gone  forth,  and  in  eighteen  centuries  of 
history,  it  is  written.  We  would  escape  this  issue  if 
we  could.  From  the  depths  of  its  soul  the. South  in- 
vokes from  heaven  "peace  on  earth,  and  good  will  to 
man."  She  would  not,  if  she  could,  cast  this  race 
back  into  the  condition  from  which  it  was  righteously 
raised.  She  would  not  deny  its  smallest  or  abridge  its 
fullest  privilege.  Not  to  lift  this  burden  forever  from 
her  people  would  she  do  the  least  of  these  things. 
She  must  walk  through  the  valley  of  the  shadow,  for 
God  has  so  ordained.  But  He  has  ordained  that  she 
shall  walk  in  that  integrity  of  race  that  was  created 
in  His  wisdom  and  has  been  perpetuated  in  His 
strength.  Standing  in  the  presence  of  this  multitude, 


64  WHAT    OF    THE    NEGRO. 

sobered  with  the  responsibility  of  the  message  I  de- 
liver to  the  young  men  of  the  South,  1  declare  that 
the  truth  above  all  others  to  be  worn  unsullied  and 
sacred  in  your  hearts,  to  be  surrendered  to  no  force, 
sold  for  no  price,  compromised  in  no  necessity,  but 
cherished  and  defended  as  the  covenant  of  your  pros- 
perity, and  the  pledge  of  peace  to  your  children,  is 
that  the  white  race  must  dominate  forever  in  the 
South,  because  it  is  the  white  race,  and  superior  to 
that  race  by  which  its  supremacy  is  threatened. 

It  is  a  race  issue.  Let  us  come  to  this  point,  and 
stand  here.  Here  the  air  is  pure  and  the  light  is  clear, 
and  here  honor  and  peace  abide.  Juggling  and  eva- 
sion deceives  not  a  man.  Compromise  and  subservi- 
ence has  carried  not  a  point.  There  is  not  a  white 
man  North  or  South  who  does  not  feel  it  stir  in  the 
gray  matter  of  his  brain  and  throb  in  his  heart.  Not 
a  negro  who  does  not  feel  its  power.  It  is  not  a  sec- 
tional issue.  It  speaks  in  Ohio  and  in  Georgia.  It 
speaks  wherever  the  Anglo-Saxon  touches  an  alien 
race.  It  has  just  spoken  in  universally  approved  leg- 
islation in  excluding  the  Chinaman  from  our  gates, 
not  for  his  ignorance,  vice  or  corruption,  but  because 
he  sought  to  establish  an  inferior  race  in  a  republic 
fashioned  in  the  wisdom  and  defended  by  the  blood 
of  a  homogeneous  people. 

The  Anglo-Saxon  blood  has  dominated  always  and 
everywhere.  It  fed  Alfred  when  he  wrote  the  charter 
of  English  liberty;  it  gathered  about  Hampden  as  he 
stood  beneath  the  oak;  it  thundered  in  Cromwell's 
veins  as  he  fought  his  king;  it  humbled  Napoleon  at 
Waterloo;  it  has  touched  the  desert  and  jungle  with 
undying  glory;  it  carried  the  drum-beat  of  England 
around  the  world  and  spread  on  every  continent  the 
gospel  of  liberty  and  of  God ;  it  established  this  repub- 
lic, carved  it  from  the  wilderness,  conquered  it  from 


WHAT   OF    THE    NEGRO.  65 

the  Indians,  wrested  it  from  England,  and  at  last, 
stilling  its  own  tumult,  consecrated  it  forever  as  the 
home  of  the  Anglo-Saxon,  and  the  theater  of  his 
transcending  achievement.  Never  one  foot  of  it  can 
be  surrendered  while  that  blood  lives  in  American 
veins,  and  feeds  American  hearts,  to  the  domination 
of  an  alien  and  inferior  race. 

And  yet  that  is  just  what  is  proposed.  Not  in 
twenty  years  have  we  seen  a  day  so  pregnant  with 
fate  to  this  section  as  the  sixth  of  next  November. 
If  President  Cleveland  is  then  defeated,  which  God 
forbid,  I  believe  these  States  will  be  led  through  sor- 
rows compared  to  which  the  woes  of  reconstruction 
will  be  as  the  fading  dews  of  morning  to  the  roaring 
flood.  To  dominate  these  States  through  the  colored 
vote,  with  such  aid  as  Federal  patronage  may  de- 
bauch or  Federal  power  determine,  and  thus  through 
its  chosen  instruments  perpetuate  its  rule,  is  in  mv 
opinion  the  settled  purpose  of  the  Republican  party. 
I  am  appalled  when  I  measure  the  passion  in  which 
this  negro  problem  is  judged  by  the  leaders  of  the 
party.  Fifteen  years  ago  Vice-President  Wilson  said 
— and  I  honor  his  memory  as  that  of  a  courageous 
man :  "We  shall  not  have  finished  with  the  South  un- 
til we  force  its  people  to  change  their  thought,  and 
think  as  we  think."  I  repeat  these  words,  for  I 
heard  them  when  a  boy,  and  they  fell  on  my  ears  as 
the  knell  of  my  people's  rights — "to  change  their 
thought,  and  make  them  think  as  we  think."  Not 
enough  to  have  conquered  our  armies — to  have  deci- 
mated our  ranks,  to  have  desolated  our  fields  and  re- 
duced us  to  poverty,  to  have  struck  the  ballot  from 
our  hands  and  enfranchised  our  slaves — to  have  held 
us  prostrate  under  bayonets  while  the  insolent 
mocked  and  thieves  plundered — but  their  very  souls 
must  be  rifled  of  their  faiths,  their  sacred  traditions 

5  ns 


66  WHAT    OF    THE    NEGRO. 

cudgeled  from  memory,  and  their  immortal  minds 
beaten  into  subjection  until  thought  had  lost  its  in- 
tegrity, and  we  were  forced  "to  think  as  they  think.'' 
And  just  now  General  Sherman  has  said,  and  I  honor 
him  as  a  soldier: 

"The  negro  must  be  allowed  to  vote,  and  his  vote 
must  be  counted ;  otherwise,  so  sure  as  there  is  a  God 
in  heaven,  you  will  have  another  war,  more  cruel  than 
the  last,  when  the  torch  and  dagger  will  take  the  place 
of  the  muskets  of  well-ordered  battalions.  Should  the 
negro  strike  that  blow,  in  seeming  justice,  there  will 
be  millions  to  assist  them." 

And  this  general  took  Johnson's  sword  in  surren- 
der !  He  looked  upon  the  thin  and  ragged  battalions 
in  gray,  that  for  four  years  had  held  his  teeming  and 
heroic  legions  at  bay.  Facing  them,  he  read  their 
courage  in  their  depleted  ranks,  and  gave  them  a  sol- 
dier's parole.  When  he  round  it  in  his  heart  to  taunt 
these  heroes  with  this  threat,  why — careless  as  he  was 
twenty  years  ago  with  fire,  he  is  even  more  careless 
now  with  his  words.  If  we  could  hope  that  this  prob- 
lem would  be  settled  within  our  lives  I  would  appeal 
from  neither  madness  nor  unmanliness.  But  when  I 
know  that,  strive  as  I  may,  I  must  at  last  render  this 
awful  heritage  into  the  untried  hands  .of  my  son,  al- 
ready dearer  to  me  than  my  life,  and  that  he  must  in 
turn  bequeath  it  unsolved  to  his  children,  I  cry  out 
against  the  inhumanity  that  deepens  its  difficulties 
with  this  incendiary  threat,  and  beclouds  its  real  issue 
with  inflaming  passion. 

This  problem  is  not  only  enduring,  but  it  is  widen- 
ing. The  exclusion  of  the  Chinese  is  the  first  step  in 
the  revolution  that  shall  save  liberty  and  law  and  re- 
ligion to  this  land,  and  in  peace  and  order,  not  en- 
forced on  the  gallows,  or  at  the  bayonet's  end,  but 
proceeding  from  the  heart  of  an  harmonious  peo- 


WHAT    OF    THE    NEGRO.  67 

pie,  shall  secure  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  rights,  and 
the  control  of  this  republic,  the  homogeneous  people 
that  established  and  has  maintained  it.  The  next 
step  will  be  taken  when  some  brave  statesman,  look- 
ing Demagogy  in  the  face,  shall  move  to  call  to  the 
stranger  at  our  gates,  "Who  comes  there?"  admit- 
ting every  man  who  seeks  a  home,  or  honors  our  in- 
stitutions, and  whose  habit  and  blood  will  run  with 
the  native  current;  but  excluding  all  who  seek  to 
plant  anarchy  or  to  establish  alien  men  or  measures 
on  our  soil ;  and  will  then  demand  that  the  standard 
of  our  citizenship  be  lifted  and  the  right  of  acquiring 
our  suffrage  be  abridged.  When  that  day  comes,  and 
God  speed  its  coming,  the  position  of  the  South  will 
be  fully  understood,  and  everywhere  approved.  Until 
then,  let  us — giving  the  negro  every  right,  civil  and 
political,  measured  in  that  fullness  the  strong  should 
always  accord  the  weak — holdng  him  in  closer  friend- 
ship and  sympathy  than  he  is  held  by  those  who  would 
crucify  us  for  his  sake — realizing  that  on  his  prosper- 
ity ours  depends — let  us  resolve  that  never  by  exter- 
nal pressure,  or  internal  division,  shall  he  establish 
domination,  directly  or  indirectly,  over  that  race  that 
everywhere  has  maintained  its  supremacy.  Let  this 
resolution  be  cast  on  the  lines  of  equity  and  justice. 
Let  it  be  the  pledge  of  honest,  safe  and  impartial  ad- 
ministration, and  we  shall  command  the  support  ox 
the  colored  race  itself,  more  dependent  than  any  other 
on  the  bounty  and  protection  of  government.  Let  us 
be  wise  and  patient,  and  we  shall  secure  through  its 
acquiescence  what  otherwise  we  should  win  through 
conflict,  and  hold  in  insecurity. 

All  this  is  no  unkindness  to  the  negro — but  rather 
that  he  may  be  led  in  equal  rights  and  in  peace  to  his 
uttermost  good.  Not  in  sectionalism — for  my  heart 
beats  true  to  the  Union,  to  the  glory  of  which  your 


68  WHAT    OF    THE    XEGEO. 

i 

life  and  heart  is  pledged.  Not  in  disregard  of  the 
world's  opinion — for  to  render  back  this  problem  in  the 
world's  approval  is  the  sum  of  my  ambition,  and  the 
height  of  human  achievement.  Not  in  reactionary 
spirit — but  rather  to  make  clear  that  new  and  grander 
way  up  which  the  South  is  marching  to  higher  des- 
tiny, and  on  which  I  would  not  halt  her  for  all  the 
spoils  that  have  been  gathered  unto  parties  since  Cati- 
line conspired,  and  Caesar  fought.  Not  in  passion, 
my  countrymen,  but  in  reason — not  in  narrowness, 
but  in  breadth — that  we  may  solve  this  problem  in 
calmness  and  in  truth,  and  lifting  its  shadows  let  per- 
petual sunshine  pour  down  on  two  races,  walking  to- 
gether in  peace  and  contentment.  Then  shall  this 
problem  have  proved  our  blessing,  and  the  race  that 
threatened  our  ruin  work  our  salvation  as  it  fills  our 
fields  with  the  best  peasantry  the  world  has  ever  seen. 
Then  the  South — putting  behind  her  all  the  achieve- 
ments of  her  past — and  in  war  and  in  peace  they  beg- 
gar eulogy — may  stand  upright  among  the  nations 
and  challenge  the  judgment  of  man  and  the  approval 
of  God,  in  having  worked  out  in  their  sympathy,  and 
in  His  guidance,  this  last  and  surpassing  miracle  of 
human  government. 


AGED  EX-SLAVES  GATHER  AT  HOME  OF  OLD 
MASTER. 


BY  ROBERT  TIMMONS. 


Palmetto,  Ga.,  September  26. — (Special.) — In  sharp 
contrast  to  the  bloody  scene  which  was  enacted  in 
this  town  in  April,  1899,  when  the  riot  occurred  in. 
which  three  negroes  were  shot  down  by  a  mob  after 
they  had  been  placed  under  arrest  for  attempting1  to 
burn  the  town,  was  the  peaceful  and  altogether 
unique  scene  which  was  witnessed  at  the  old  Menefee 
homestead  when  fifteen  negroes,  all  ex-slaves,  gath- 
ered in  a  reunion  at  the  home  of  their  former  master 
here  to-day. 

Never  before  in  the  history  of  Georgia,  and  prob- 
ably never  before  in  the  history  of  the  South,  was 
there  just  such  a  gathering  as  that  at  this  old  South- 
ern plantation. 

The  idea  of  holding  this  reunion  at  the  home  of 
their  former  master,  who  has  been  dead  for  a  number 
of  years,  was  conceived  by  one  of  the  negroes  pres- 
ent, and  when  it  was  suggested  to  the  other  ex-slaves 
it  was  received  with  their  heartiest  approval.  Only 
one  of  the  negroes  who  was  present  at  the  reunion  is 
a  resident  of  Palmetto,  all  the  others  coming  from  a 
distance  and  from  different  points  in  the  State.  The 
oldest  member  of  the  party,  "Uncle"  Edmund  Mene- 
fee, who  is  80  years  old,  came  from  near  Hiram,  Ga., 
in  Cobb  county,  and  walked  the  entire  distance,  about 
fifty  miles,  in  order  that  he  might  see  once  more  the 

(69) 


70  EX-SLAVES  AT  HOME  OF  OLD  MASTER. 

old  homestead  and  the  other  slaves  with  whom  he  was 
associated  when  a  young  man. 

Several  of  the  negroes  who  attended  the  reunion 
are  residents  of  Atlanta  and  came  down  on  the  morn- 
ing train,  returning  to  the  city  in  the  evening. 

The  negroes  who  were  present  and  who  came  from 
different  parts  of  the  State  to  attend  the  reunion  were 
"Uncle"  Edmund  Menefee,  of  Cobb  county;  "Uncle" 
Lev  Menefee,  of  19  Wilson  street,  Atlanta;  Willis 
Menefee  Randall,  of  156  Magnolia  street,  Atlanta; 
Fielding  Menefee,  of  Cobb  county;  Wilson  Menefee 
and  Stewart  Menefee,  of  Atlanta ;  Clarke  Menefee  and 
Taylor  Slaughter,  of  Campbell  county;  Easter  Men- 
efee, Amanda  Menefee  and  Gabriel  Menefee,  of  Cobb 
county,  and  his  mother,  "Aunt"  Hennie  Menefee,  the 
old  family  cook,  who  estimates  her  age  at  90  years; 
Jennie  Menefee,  John  Menefee  and  Harvie  Menefee. 

These  are  the  only  living  ex-slaves  of  about  125 
who  belonged  to  the  estate  of  Major  Menefee,  and 
who  were  given  their  freedom  by  him  after  the  war 
had  closed.  As  was  customary  after  being  given  their 
freedom,  the  negroes  took  the  name  of  their  former 
master. 

Each  of  these  negroes  is  well-to-do,  many  of  them 
are  property  owners.  Most  of  them  followed  the  bus- 
iness which  was  taught  them  as  slaves,  that  of  tilling 
the  soil.  They  say  they  are  in  the  South  to  stay.  It 
was  estimated  that  the  value  of  the  property  owned 
by  them  is  about  $10,000. 

The  white  persons  who  were  present  and  witnessed 
the  celebration  of  these  ex-slaves  were :  Mrs.  M.  A. 
Wiley,  of  Palmetto;  Mrs.  S.  M.  Dean,  of  Atlanta; 
Mrs.  John  H.  Covin,  of  Hogansville,  all  daughters  of 
Major  Willis  Menefee ;  Dr.  W.  S.  Zellars,  one  of  the 
oldest  inhabitants  of  Palmetto,  who  was  the  physician 
employed  by  Major  Menefee  to  attend  the  slaves  be- 


EX-SLAVES  AT  HOME  OF  OLD  MASTER.  71 

fore  the  war ;  Mrs.  Maggie  Dean  Morris,  of  Atlanta ; 
Willis  Menefee  Timmons,  of  Atlanta;  Mrs.  E.  K. 
Farmer,  of  Fitzgerald,  Ga. ;  Miss  Stevie  Timmons,  of 
Atlanta;  Mrs.  Howard  Wooding,  of  Hogansville; 
B.  E.  L.  Timmons,  Jr.,  of  Inman ;  Thomas  Covin,  of 
Hogansville,  and  B.  H.  Timmons,  of  Atlanta,  all 
grandchildren  of  Major  Menefee,  and  Miss  Mabel 
Brown  and  Mrs.  T.  P.  Zellars,  together  with  several 
ether  friends  of  the  family. 

The  old  Menefee  home  is  located  about  half  a  mile 
from  the  center  of  town,  and  is  a  typical  ante-bellum 
residence.  It  is  situated  some  distance  back  from  the 
road  and  is  reached  by  a  broad  gravel  walk  leading 
up  to  the  large  stone  steps  between  an  avenue  of 
cedar  trees.  As  it  was  before  the  war  the  large  yard 
immediately  in  front  of  the  house  is  filled  with  all 
kinds  of  beautiful  and  sweet  smelling  flowers,  vines 
and  shrubbery  indigenous  to  Southern  soil,  among 
which  the  humming  birds  flit  on  their  honey-gather- 
ing expeditions  all  during  the  summer  days. 

In  front  of  the  house,  across  the  Atlantic  &  West 
Point  railroad,  and  to  the  rear,  after  passing  a  pine 
and  oak  grove,  stretch  acres  and  acres  of  rich  corn 
and  cotton  fields  which  compose  the  plantation.  The 
home  and  plantation  is  now  owned  by  Mrs.  M.  A. 
Wiley,  the  oldest  living  daughter  of  Major  Menefee. 

When  the  old  ex-slaves  began  to  arrive  in  the 
morning  it  was  an  interesting  sight  to  a  member  of  a 
younger  generation  of  whites  to  watch  them  as  they 
wandered  about  over  the  place,  viewing  the  scenes  so 
familiar  to  them  in  the  days  before  the  war  when  they 
were  a  part  of  the  property  which  made  up  this  South- 
ern plantation.  Many  of  them  had  never  visited  the 
plantation  since  several  years  after  the  war,  when 
they  left  to  provide  for  themselves. 

The  intensely  religious  nature,  so  characteristic  of 


72  JEX-SLAVES  AT  HOME  OF  OLD  MASTER. 

the  negro,  was  clearly  shown  as  they  walked  about 
the  yard  and  through  the  house  with  uncovered  heads 
to  show  their  reverence  for  the  place  where  they  had 
spent  what  each  said  was  the  happiest  period  of  their 
lives.  A  touching  scene  was  witnessed  when  they 
were  carried  into  the  spacious  parlor  of  the  home  and 
shown  the  portrait  of  their  former  master.  They 
stood  with  bowed  heads,  many  of  them  weeping,  and 
each  speaking  with  praise  unrestrained  of  the  master 
who  had  treated  them  so  kindly  when  they  wers 
slaves. 

They  visited  the  dairy,  the  stables,  the  apple  or- 
chard and  the  hill  in  the  rear  of  the  "big"  house, 
where  was  situated  the  "quarters"  during  the  time 
they  lived  on  the  plantation  as  slaves.  Many  interest- 
ing incidents  of  the  former  days  were  remembered 
and  recited  in  their  quaint  negro  dialect  by  the  older 
members  of  the  party. 

At  the  noon  hour,  as  was  her  custom  before  the 
war,  old  "Aunt"  Hennie,  the  cook,  blew  the  conch 
shell  which  had  so  often  called  them  to  their  meals, 
and  they  gathered  under  the  wide-spreading  oaks  in 
the  rear  of  the  house,  where  a  table  loaded  down  with 
good  things  to  eat  had  been  prepared  for  them. 

After  the  meal  was  finished  the  children  and  grand- 
children of  their  former  master  gathered  in  the  yard 
under  the  tree  and  listened  to  the  negroes  as  they  re- 
lated incidents  of  the  days  of  slavery  before  and  dur- 
ing the  war. 

They  never  tired  of  singing  the  praise  of  their  mas- 
ter, "Marse  Willis,"  and  their  mistress,  "Miss  Jan- 
nette."  They  told  of  how  well  they  had  been  treated 
as  slaves  and  of  how,  though  they  wanted  freedom, 
yet  when  freedom  came  they  wanted  to  remain  on  the 
same  plantation  and  continue  to  work  for  their  mis- 
tress, after  the  death  of  their  master.  They  told  of 


"  Uncle  Gabriel," 

52  years  old. 
"  Uncle"  Fielding, 
50  years  old. 


"  Aunt "  Henuie, 
90  years  old. 

'Uncle"  Willis, 
G3  years  old. 


"  Uncle  "  Lev, 

77  years  old. 

Uncle"  Edmond, 

80  years  old. 


Former  slaves  of  Major  Willis  Menefee,  who   attended  remarkable  reunion 
held  at  old  Menefee  Homestead  in  Palmetto.  • 


EX-SLAVES  AT  HOME  OF  OLD  MASTER.  73 

how  their  master  had  taught  them  to  be  religious,  to 
be  neat  and  clean,  to  be  always  honest  and  give  the 
proper  respect  to  the  whites.  These  lessons,  they  said, 
had  remained  with  them  and  they  were  teaching  them 
to  their  children. 

"Uncle"  Edmund,  the  oldest  member  of  the  party, 
and  the  one  who  had  walked  fifty  miles  to  attend  the 
reunion,  told  of  how  he  had  remained  with  his  mis- 
tress during  the  war  and  had  gladly  protected  her, 
the  children  and  the  house  while  Sherman  and  his 
yankees  were  marching  through  Palmetto. 

Many  old  plantation  melodies  were  sung  and  each 
one  of  the  fifteen  present  joined  in.  The  music  was 
of  that  quaint,  perfectly  harmonious  kind  such  as  only 
negroes  can  make. 

The  songs  and  stories  continued  till  late  in  the 
afternoon,  and  before  the  gathering  broke  up  it  was 
agreed  that  each  year  the  reunion  wouM  be  held  on 
the  old  plantation. 


RACES  IN  HARMONY;  SOUTH  SAFE  AS  HOME. 


COULD  NOT  DEPORT  NEGRO  IF  SUCH  WAS  DESIRED — THF, 

RACES  ARE  MORE  IN  HARMONY  THAN  THEY  HAVE 

BEEN  AT  ANY  TIME  SINCE  THE  ClVIL  WAR. 


EX-GOVERNOR  W.  J.  NORTHEN,  OF  GEORGIA. 


In  connection  with  the  wide  discussion  concerning 
the  subject  of  lynching,  violence  and  mob  law  that  has 
followed  the  publication  of  the  communication  of 
Bishop  Candler  on  the  matter  in  the  Constitution, 
the  following  interview  with  former  Governor  W.  J, 
Northen  is  sure  to  prove  both  interesting  and  profit- 
able. 

It  will  be  remembered  in  this  connection  that  Mr. 
Northen  has  not  only  been  a  close  and  careful  studenr 
of  the  entire  subject,  but  was  pertinently,  if  not  per- 
sonally, responsible  for  the  introduction  of  the  anti- 
lynching  legislation  during  his  term  of  office  which 
still  presents  the  legal  side  of  the  matter  in  the  State 
statutes  of  Georgia. 

Former  Governor  Northen  also  furnishes  in  the 
interview  certain  statistics  and  chapters  of  history  re- 
garding the  anti-lynching  movement  that  are  abso- 
lutely essential  in  the  discussion  of  the  subject.  Per- 
haps the  greatest  and  most  prominent  feature  brought 
out  by  this  student  is  his  cheerful,  optimistic  view  of 
the  situation  and  facts  which  prove  that  Georgia,  at 
least,  has  traveled  far  on  the  road  of  solving  this 
much  mooted  question. 

(74) 


RACES    IN    HARMONY.  75- 

Where  some  men  have  painted  the  South  as  a  dan- 
gerous and  unsafe  place  to  live  in,  he  points  with  facts 
rather  than  arguments  to  prove  that  home,  sweet 
home,  is  never  sweeter  and  safer  than  right  among 
the  green  fields  of  Georgia.  Where  some  point  to  the 
exile  or  ostracism  of  the  negro  as  the  only  solution, 
ex-Governor  Northen  shows  that  the  problem  is  al- 
ready well  advanced  toward  a  peaceful  and  satisfac- 
tory settlement  in  a  better  understanding  between  the 
two  races. 

While  he  opposes  lynching  and  mob  violence  from 
any  standpoint,  he  seems  to  almost  deplore  the  fact 
that  there  is  not  some  greater  punishment  for  the 
crime  of  rape  than  the  sentence  of  death,  which  the 
law  provides.  He  criticises,  too,  the  unscrupulous 
press  in  painting  a  reign  of  lawlessness  and  carnage 
regardless  of  facts  that  furnishes  erroneous  impres- 
sions that  are  quickly  grasped  by  the  newspapers  of 
the  North  and  reprinted  to  show  that  the  South  is  still 
grappling  with  a  problem  that  makes  a  visit  to  Dixie 
land  a  trip  attended  with  jeopardy  while  the  erection 
of  a  home  in  the  Southland  demands  little  less  than 
military  protection. 

When  approacheed  on  the  subject,  ex-Governor 
Northen  said  that  he  had  kept  up  with  the  discussions 
of  the  matter  as  they  have  appeared  in  the  newspa- 
pers. He  was  strongly  of  the  opinion  that  no  consid- 
erable portion  of  the  people  of  the  South  were  in  fa- 
vor of  mob  violence  or  lynch  law,  while  so  far  as 
Georgia  is  concerned,  he  said  that  he  could  state  au- 
thoritatively that  the  sentiment  was  in  favor  of  allow- 
ing the  law  to  take  its  course  in  the  settlement  of  jus- 
tice. 

"If  you  will  pardon  the  personal  reference,  let  me 
say,  during  my  administration  I  had  occasion  to  make 
a  very  thorough  official  investigation,  that  fully  satis- 


76  RACES    IN    HARMONY. 

fied  me  that  the  people  of  this  State,  as  a  body,  were 
in  the  fullest  sympathy  with  the  administration  of  the 
law  and  that  they  were  ready  to  uphold  it  at  any  and 
all  hazard,  whatever  the  nature  of  the  crime  demand- 
ing punishment." 

In  further  proof  of  his  confidence  in  the  people  he 
said: 

"When  I  left  the  capitol  I  left  on  file  a  mass  of  cor- 
respondence covering",  to  my  satisfaction,  the  position 
of  the  people  of  this  State  on  mob  violence  and  lynch- 
ing. Taking  as  the  starting  point,  I  filed  the  admira- 
ble essay  by  the  then  distinguished  Chief  Justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  as  read  before  the  State  Bar  Associa- 
tion, pleading  for  the  maintenance  of  the  law  and  the 
authority  of  the  courts  in  the  prosecution  of  criminals 
and  the  punishments  for  crime,  whatever  the  viola- 
tion and  however  damnable  the  outrage.  The  courts, 
he  proclaimed,  are  sufficient  and  he  inveighed  strong- 
ly against  the  fury  and  the  wreck  of  a  maddened  mob. 

"Apprehending  that  I  might  have  occasion  to  en- 
force the  observance  of  the  law  in  the  suppression  of 
a  mob,  I  addressed  letters  to  the  daily  newspapers  in 
the  State  to  know  whether  I  would  be  supported  in 
the  policy.  From  every  daily  paper  I  received  not 
only  favorable  replies,  but  in  each  case  the  statements 
were  very  strongly  put. 

"I  then  addressed  letters  to  each  one  of  the  supe- 
rior court  judges  and  the  solicitors  general  of  the  sev- 
eral courts,  to  know  whether  or  not  they  were  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  sentiments  of  the  distinguished  Chief 
Justice  as  expressed  in  the  essay  to  which  I  have  al- 
luded. To  a  man  I  found  them  to  be  just  as  strong. 

"Following  the  matter  further,  I  wrote  to  the  sher- 
iffs over  the  State  and  I  found  them  ready  to  support 
the  law  to  the  fullest  extent  of  their  authority. 

"All  this  correspondence  I  left  on  file  at  the  capitol, 


RACES    IN    HARMONY.  77 

attesting  the  loyalty  of  the  officers  of  the  State  to  the 
majesty  of  the  law. 

"When  the  General  Assembly  met  I  had  a  conference 
with  prominent  members  of  the  judiciary  committee 
as  to  the  sufficiency  of  law  for  the  punishment  of  mob 
violence  and  kindred  lawlessness,  and  it  was  agreed 
that  absolute  security  would  be  effected  by  some  addi- 
tional legislation.  Hon.  Warner  Hill,  chairman  of 
this  committee,  was  selected  to  frame  such  statute, 
and  it  passed  both  houses  without  a  dissenting  vote. 
This  statute  authorizes  the  sheriff  or  other  officer  in 
charge  to  suppress  mob  violence  by  arresting  the  par- 
ties so  engaged  and  placing  them  in  the  common  jail 
to  be  dealt  with  as  the  law  directs ;  it  declares  that 
any  citizen  engaged  in  mobbing  or  lynching  is  guilty 
of  felony  and  on  conviction  to  be  punished  by  impris- 
onment in  the  penitentiary;  and  should  death  result 
from  such  mob  violence  the  person  causing  said  death 
shall  be  subject  to  indictment  and  trial  for  murder. 
The  statute  further  provides  that  the  sheriff  shall  be 
punished  for  failure  to  do  his  duty.  The  law  gives  the 
sheriff  authority  to  summon  to  his  aid,  with  arms,  any 
number  of  citizens  he  may  need  to  suppress  the  mob, 
and  to  take  human  life,  if  it  be  necessary,  to  enforce 
the  law. 

"When  this  bill  became  law  I  sent  a  copy  to  each 
sheriff  in  the  State,  accompanied  by  the  following  let- 
ter: 

"  'State  of  Georgia,  Executive  Department,  Atlan- 
ta, Ga.,  December  19,  1893. — My  Dear  Sir:  I  enclose 
you  herewith  copy  of  bill  introduced  by  Hon.  Warner 
Hill,  passed  unanimously  by  the  recent  General  As- 
sembly, and  approved  this  day. 

"  'I  send  you  the  bill  thus  early  that  you  may  at 
once  know  its  provisions  and  that  I  may  apprise  you 
of  the  authority  given  you  in  the  Act,  as  well  as  the 


78  RACES    IN    HARMONY. 

responsibility  now  put  upon  you  to  preserve  the  peace 
and  honor  of  the  State. 

"  'The  General  Assembly,  by  unanimous  action,  has 
pronounced  death  by  mob  violence  murder,  and  de- 
clared that  all  citizens  who  become  parties  thereto 
are  subject  to  indictment  and  trial  under  such  charge. 
You  will  observe,  further,  that  the  Act  not  only  au- 
thorizes you  to  summon  to  your  aid  any  and  all  the 
citizens  of  your  county,  in  your  efforts  to  suppress 
mob  violence  and  lawlessness,  but  it  very  properly 
pronounces  failure  to  respond  on  the  part  of  such  cit- 
izens so  summoned  a  misdemeanor,  and  upon  convic- 
tion they  will  be  duly  punished  under  the  law. 

"  'I  can  hardly  believe  that  any  officer  of  the  law  in 
this  State  will  so  far  fail  in  duty  as  to  deserve  the  pun- 
ishment prescribed  in  section  2  of  this  Act,  yet  I  am 
•candid  to  say  that  I  suggested  and  I  am,  therefore, 
responsible  for  this  enactment,  as  I  desired  to  make  it 
absolutely  certain  that  another  case  of  mob  violence 
should  never  be  possible  in  this  State. 

"  'The  Act,  therefore,  compels  both  the  citizen  and 
the  officer  to  discharge  their  duties  under  penalty  of 
the  law. 

"  'The  honor  of  the  State,  as  far  as  your  jurisdic- 
tion extends,  is  now  in  your  hands,  and  I  shall  watch 
with  great  interest  the  outcome  of  this  new  legisla- 
tion. 

"  'Your  strong  letter,  received  some  months  ago, 
assuring  me  of  your  determined  purpose  to  aid  in  sup- 
pressing lawlessness,  has  had  much  to  do  with  the 
passage  of  this  bill,  and  I  am  constrained  to  believe 
you  will  do  your  whole  duty  and  that  mob  law  in 
Georgia  is  now  at  an  end. 

"  'W.  J.  NORTHEN,  Governor.' 

"I  have  given  you  these  facts  to  demonstrate  three 
things : 


RACES    IN    HARMONY.  79 

"i.  That  every  court  officer  is  fully  ready  to  do  his 
full  duty  in  the  enforcement  of  the  law. 

"2.  That  the  machinery  of  the  courts  is  sufficient 
to  punish  adequately  and  fully,  as  provided  by  law, 
every  crime  possible  to  human  villainy. 

"3.  That  the  sentiment  of  the  people  in  this  State 
is  strongly  against  mob  violence,  especially  as  ex- 
pressed in  lynching.  If  this  were  not  true,  the  news- 
papers in  the  State  would  not  have  given  to  me  the 
expressions  stated  to  you  a  moment  ago.  If  it  were 
not  true,  the  bill  that  became  law  would  not  have 
passed  the  General  Assembly  of  the  State  without  a 
dissenting  vote.  The  lawmakers  represented  the  peo- 
ple, and  they  put  the  views  of  the  people  into  State 
enactment.  The  sentiment  of  the  people  of  this  State 
is  unquestionably  against  mob  violence  and  lynching." 

In  answer  to  the  question  as  to  whether  or  not 
there  had  been  lynchings  since  the  enactment  of  that 
law,  he  replied: 

"Yes,  and  there  have  been  in  this  State  and  every 
other  State  violations  of  every  criminal  law  in  the 
Code,  but  that  does  not  indicate  that  the  people  are 
not  pronounced  against  such  iniquities.  The  question 
to  which  I  am  making  reply  is :  Does  any  considera- 
ble portion  of  the  people  at  the  South  favor  mob  vio- 
lence or  lynch  law?" 

When  asked  to  suggest  some  remedy,  the  ex-Gov- 
ernor continued : 

"I  believe  the  people  in  the  rural  districts  are  as 
much  entitled  to  police  protection  as  the  people  in 
the  cities.  I  do  not  make  the  suggestion  because  of 
the  presence  of  the  negroes  any  more  than  I  would 
make  the  suggestion  to  the  cities  because  of  their 
absence,  but  on  general  conditions  that  demand  pro- 
tection. Every  county  in  this  State  and  in  every  other 
State,  North  or  South,  should  have  a  police  force 


80  RACES    IN    HARMONY. 

efficient  and  active.  The  sheriff  should  be  chief  of 
such  county  police,  and  see  that  they  are  vigilant. 
This  will  not  only  largely  eliminate  the  little  remain- 
ing spirit  there  is  still  among  our  people  to  deal  sum- 
mary vengeance  upon  outlaws,  but  it  would  furnish 
such  protection  as  to  prevent  crimes  of  all  kinds  in 
the  rural  sections.  It  is  well  to  say,  as  you  haver 
doubtless,  oberved,  that  there  has  been  not  only  less 
occasion  for  mob  violence  because  of  assaults,  but 
that  the  people  have  more  generally  refrained  from 
violence  and  awaited  action  by  the  courts.  The  rela- 
tions between  the  races  are  not  so  antagonistic  as  for- 
merly, but  far  more  cooperative.  To  believe  this, 
you  have  only  to  recall  the  conditions  that  existed 
soon  after  the  war  when  the  ku-klux  were  believed 
to  be  necessary  to  the  safety  of  the  people.  After 
these,  came  the  vigilance  committees,  and  now,  if  we 
had  the  county  police,  regulated  by  law,  the  situation 
would  be  largely,  if  not  completely,  met. 

"Next,  I  would  be  glad  to  see  the  sheriffs  devote 
one  entire  session  of  their  State  convention  to  the 
discussion  of  matters  pertaining  to  their  duties  in  sub- 
duing mobs  and  enforcing  the  law.  Such  discussion 
will  not  only  bring  helpful  suggestions  to  officers  of 
the  law,  but  it  will  tend  to  create  most  healthful  pub- 
lic opinion  and  establish  authority. 

"The  great  objection,  as  stated  oftentimes,  is  the 
necessity  for  the  presence  of  the  outraged  victim  be- 
fore the  court  during  the  trial  of  the  alleged  outlaw. 
To  remedy  this,  I  call  your  attention  to  a  provision  of 
the  Code  of  1882,  section  4663,  as  follows : 

"  'It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  judges  of  the  superior 
courts  to  make  a  special  report  annually  to  the  Gov- 
ernor of  this  State  previous  to  the  meeting  of  the 
General  Assembly,  and  by  him  to  be  submitted  to  the 
Legislature,  of  all  such  defects,  omissions  or  imper- 


RACES    IN    HARMONY.  81 

fections  in  this  Code,  as  experience  on  their  several 
circuits  may  suggest.'  Surely,  the  judiciary  of  the 
State  can  suggest  some  enactment  that  will  meet  the 
demands  of  the  case  and  prevent  the  humiliation  com- 
plained of  in  case  of  court  trial. 

"After  having  expressed  myself  thus  far  at  your  re- 
quest, may  I  now  be  allowed  to  say  there  has  been  a 
good  deal  of  morbid  and  extravagant  statements 
about  conditions  at  the  South  upon  the  subject  of  out- 
rages and  lynchings.  There  is  not  a  better  civilization 
in  any  State  or  section  in  this  Union  than  in  Georgia, 
and  at  the  South.  I  have  lived  here  all  my  life,  and  I 
have  been  all  over  the  United  States,  and  I  have  yet 
to  find  a  place  for  which  I  would  exchange  a  home 
in  Georgia  or  at  the  South.  I  have  lived  among  ne- 
groes all  my  life,  and,  like  the  distinguished  bishop, 
I  do  not  want  to  live  where  there  are  none.  I  will 
trust  them  in  every  relation  far  more  confidently  than 
I  would  the  mongrel  population  of  self-announced 
socialists,  anarchists  and  outlaws,  who  do  the  menial 
service  of  other  sections.  We  do  not  want  to  deport 
the  negroes.  We  could  not  if  we  so  desired.  How 
can  you  force  10,000,000  of  people  to  leave  the  coun- 
try, when  they  exercise  the  same  civil  rights  as  are 
accorded  to  you?  If  they  consented  to  go,  where  is 
the  country  accessible  in  which  they  would  be  more 
acceptable  than  to  you?  Who  would  receive  them, 
if  you  cast  them  off?  They  now  have  to  their  credit 
upon  the  tax  books  more  than  a  half  billion  dollars 
worth  of  property.  Who  would  buy  at  the  prices  they 
would,  later,  demand  for  their  holdings?  If  these 
conditions  were  all  met,  the  expense  of  transportation 
would  burden  the  government  beyond  recovery  in 
its  most  prosperous  days.  Who  would  buy  for  them 
their  furnishings  and  the  lands  upon  which  they  must 
settle?  . 

6  ns 


82  RACES    IX    HARMONY. 

"The  negro  furnishes  almost  exclusively  the  farm 
labor  at  the  South.  If  all  other  possible  conditions 
could  be  met  satisfactorily  their  leaving  in  a  body  or 
gradually  would  paralyze  the  agricultural  conditions 
at  the  South  beyond  recovery  for  three  generations. 
Let  it  be  understood  that  the  negroes  are  here  to  stay, 
and  we  are  going  to  see  that  they  behave  themselves 
or  punish  them  with  the  extreme  penalty  of  the  law 
when  they  deserve  and  give  them  fullest  credit  when 
their  conduct  so  demands. 

"The  better  classes  of  the  negroes  have  shown  them- 
selves quite  as  much  in  favor  of  the  death  penalty 
for  the  outlaws  of  their  race  who  commit  assaults  as 
are  the  white  people  themselves.  There  is  no  longer 
that  disposition  to  conceal  and  protect  these  crimi- 
nals against  full  and  proper  punishment.  When  this 
punishment  is  administered  uniformly  by  due  process 
of  law  and  not  by  the  barbarous  burnings  by  the  mob, 
you  will  find  the  most  active  co-operation  on  their  part 
in  bringing  the  criminal  to  the  tribunal  designated  to 
punish  crime. 

"For  all  these  years  I  have  had  occasion  to  watch 
closely  the  relations  between  the  races  in  this  State, 
and  I  say  to  you,  most  positively,  there  has  not  been 
a  time  since  the  war  when  we  were  more  in  harmony 
than  we  are  to-day. 

"Have  you  not  observed  that  a  great  deal  of  mis- 
information is  given  to  the  press  and  scattered  over 
the  country  to  the  great  damage  of  our  honor  as  a 
State  and  our  best  material  interests  ?  A  case  in  point 
occurred  only  a  short  time  since  when  we  were  told 
that  a  white  man  and  a  negro  had  committed  an  out- 
rage on  an  old  white  woman  in  one  of  our  lower  coun- 
ties and  that  both  these  outlaws  had  been  promptlv 
lynched.  The  next  day  we  were  told  the  outrages  had 
not  been  committed,  and,  of  course,  the  lynching  had 


EACES   IN    HARMONY.  83 

not  taken  place.  Again,  we  constantly  see  something 
like  this :  'A  villanious  negro  committed  a  fearful  crime 
in  this  community  yesterday  and  he  is  being  pursued 
by  an  infuriated  crowd  of  men.  He  will  be  lynched 
as  soon  as  captured.'  Why  not  wait  until  the  lynch- 
ing occurs  ?  There  seems  to  be  a  morbid  appetite  on 
the  part  of  some  correspondents  and  some  newspa- 
pers that  are  afraid  of  being  'scooped'  and  it  is  grati- 
fied to  the  great  damage  of  our  civilization  and  the 
honor  of  the  State. 

"There  is  no  crime  known  to  me  more  villainous 
and  damning  than  the  one  unnamed.  If  there  were 
punishment  greater  than  death  I  would  be  glad  to  see 
it  administered  to  the  guilty  outlaw,  under  due  pro- 
cess of  law  before  the  courts,  but  I  protest  now,  as  I 
have  for  all  these  years,  against  mob  law  and  lynch- 
ing. Our  law  properly  pronounces  such  brutality 
murder,  and  no  crime,  however  heinous,,  can  justify 
it.  I  have  shown  you  that  our  people  do  not  counte- 
nance it,  and  any  statement  to  the  contrary  is  untrue. 
We  are  now  putting  all  the  idle  negroes  to  work  and 
the  better  negroes  are  helping  to  this  end.  Vice  and 
crime  have  greatly  decreased  among  them  and  we  are 
practically  free  from  trouble.  Let  us  stop  the  contin- 
ued abuse  of  the  negro  and  rather  help  him  to  be  use- 
ful to  himself  and  the  community.  Commend  him 
freely  and  generously  and  publicly,  if  you  will,  when 
he  does  well,  and  punish  him  severely  in  the  courts 
when  he  is  vicious,  and  let  that  be  the  end  of  it.  We 
have  no  occasion  for  a  constant  crying  out.  We  have 
peace  and  abundant  prosperity.  Just  let  us  say  so, 
publish  the  crimes  of  the  people  if  it  is  best,  but  let  us 
be  sure  they  have  been  committed  before  we  say  so." 


MUST  PUT  DOWN  THE  MOB  OR  BE  PUT 
DOWN  BY  IT. 


BY  BISHOP  WARREN  A.  CANDLER,  D.D., 
Of  the  Methodist  Church. 


The  lynching  mania  can  no  longer  be  considered  a 
local,  or  sectional  evil.  It  has  spread  to  every  part  of 
our  country  and  shows  itself  as  the  manifestation  of 
a  spirit  that  deserves  the  reprobation  of  the  good 
everywhere  without  regard  to  party  or  place. 

It  is  something  worse  than  unfair  for  the  people  of 
the  North  to  treat  the  subject  as  if  it  were  a  peculiar 
sin  of  the  South,  and  it  is  something  worse  than  a 
mistake  for  the  people  of  the  South  to  defend  it  as  if 
it  were  their  especial  besetment  about  which  they  felt 
.a  self-convicting  sensitiveness.  It  is  the  duty  of  all 
good  people  in  every  part  of  our  country  to  unite  in 
putting  down  the  mob.  For  let  us  be  well  assured 
that  the  good  people  will  put  down  the  mob,  or  the 
mob  will  put  down  the  good  people. 

When  a  lynching  occurs,  the  law  is  more  truly 
lynched  than  is  the  victim  of  the  mob's  fury.  It  is  an 
outburst  of  anarchy,  and  not  an  eruption  of  righteous, 
indignation  against  an  atrocious  crime. 

In  defense  of  lynching,  it  is  sometimes  said :  "Stoi> 
the  outrages  that  provoke  lynching  and  the  lynching 
will  cease."  But  pray  tell  which  outrage  is  meant? 
If  reference  to  the  horrible  crime  of  rape  is  intended, 
it  is  enough  to  say  in  reply  that  it  is  not  the  cause  of 
one-fourth  the  lynchings  which  occur  in  the  United 
States.  Two  years  since,  for  example,  the  figures  for 

(84) 


MUST    PUT    DOWN    THE    MOB.  85 

a  year  showed  only  sixteen  cases  of  ravishing-  against 
128  lynchings.  In  the  case  at  Evansville,  Ind.,  the 
original  sin  which  gave  rise  to  the  lynching  was  the 
.shooting  of  a  policeman.  But  the  mob  sent  a  load  of 
buckshot  into  the  breast  of  a  young  girl  of  15  years  of 
age,  who  was  in  no  wise  involved.  How  can  such 
reckless  fury  ever  cure  crime,  or  arrest  disorder?  Is 
there  one  home  more  secure  or  one  life  more  safe  by 
reason  of  such  horrible  outbursts  ? 

Who  composed  this  Indiana  mob?  Were  its  lead- 
ers men  who  were  incontrollably  jealous  for  morality 
and  justice?  On  the  contrary,  the  arrests  made  sub- 
sequent to  the  lynching  showed  among  the  leaders 
three  professional  gamblers,  three  men  known  to  the 
police  as  desperate  characters,  and  one  man  who  had 
been  guilty  of  killing  another  some  years  ago.  Is  ft 
not  clear  that  this  lynching  was  fomented  and  carried 
out  by  a  lot  of  blood-thirsty  scapegraces,  who  had  not 
the  slightest  interest  in  anything  good?  They  are 
the  sort  who  find  pleasure  in  the  bloody  brutalities  of 
the  prize  fight.  And  yet  men  of  respectability  were 
iound  foolish  enough  to  apologize  for  the  atrocities. 

And  such  are  the  men,  generally,  who  organize 
mob  violence.  How  delighted  they  must  be  when 
-decent  people  rush  into  print  to  defend,  if  not  to  eulo- 
gize, their  diabolical  deeds!  Is  it  not  time  decent 
people  put  their  pens  to  better  use?  The  mob  which 
they  eulogize  to-day  will  turn  upon  its  defenders  to- 
morrow. The  taste  for  blood  grows  with  indulgence. 

Lynch  law,  I  repeat,  is  anarchy,  and  anarchy  is  al- 
ways the  forerunner  of  destruction  in  republics.  This 
evil  strikes  at  the  very  heart  of  our  civil  institutions. 
If  unchecked  it  will  increase,  and  eventually  become 
unendurable  by  the  vicious  even.  Men  will  grow  so 
weary  of  it  that  they  will  welcome  any  sort  of  strong 
hand  which  will  undertake  to  put  it  down,  even  the 


86  MUST    PUT    DOWN    THE    MOB. 

hand  of  tyranny.  They  will  argue  that  the  tyranny 
of  one  strong,  wise  man  is  preferable  to  the  many- 
headed  tyranny  of  a  brainless  mob,  as,  indeed,  it  is. 
Then  the  hour  for  the  "man  on  horseback"  will  have 
struck  and  he  will  appear.  The  anarchy  of  Sulla  and 
Marius  produced  Caesarism,  with  all  the  dreadful  con- 
sequences it  drew  after  it.  The  spirit  of  mobocracy 
in  the  Grecian  republics  made  Philip  of  Macedon  pos- 
sible and  opened  the  way  for  Alexander.  Robespierre 
and  his  rioters  gave  Napoleon  his  chance.  They  slew 
the  liberty  which  they  professed  to  love. 

And  let  no  man  suppose  that  such  an  outcome  is 
impossible  in  our  land  and  time.  The  American  peo- 
ple are  as  quick  as  any  to  adore  a  military  hero,  and 
they  can  make  one  out  of  as  small  amount  of  the  raw 
material  as  any  nation  that  ever  kissed  a  sword  or 
bowed  to  a  plume.  Witness  the  election  of  Jackson 
and  the  "rough  rider"  to  the  highest  office.  More- 
over, it  should  be  remembered  that  we  turn  out  of 
the  military  academy  of  the  nation  annually  more 
than  a  hundred  young  men. whose  future  turns  on 
the  use  of  the  sword.  They  are  generally  men  of 
worldly  honor  and  ambition.  Many  of  them  come 
from  influential  families,  and  have  the  influence  of 
such  connections  back  of  them.  Would  it  be  a 
strange  thing  if  in  all  their  number  there  should  be 
found  one  capable  of  seizing  power  in  the  name  of 
order?  Or,  would  it  be  a  matter  of  wonder  if  the 
people,  having  grown  weary  of  disorder,  should  glad- 
ly welcome  a  strong,  educated  man  of  honor,  who 
should  appear  and  promise  them  peace  and  security? 
Stranger  things  have  happened. 

Depend  upon  it,  no  nation  ever  retains  liberty  after 
it  ceases  to  maintain  law.  Lynch  law  protects  no 
home,  but  does  rather  pull  down  the  strongest  de- 
fense of  all  the  homes  in  the  commonwealth.  Our 


MUST    PUT    DOWN    THE    MOB.  87 

homes  are  sheltered  by  law,  and  they  are  not  shielded 
by  lawlessness. 

We  have  problems  enough  to  solve  in  this  country, 
to  be  sure.     But  we  have  no  problem  which  cannot 
be  solved  by  the  practice  of  personal  and  civic  right- 
eousness every  day.     The  man  who  will  not  try  that 
remedy  has  no  right  to  propose  any  other.     In  the 
end,  all  other  solutions  will  be  found  worse  than  vain. 
With  reference  to  the  various  picturesque  propos- 
als which  are  periodically  made  to  cure  all  our  ills,  it 
is,  perhaps,  not  unkind  to  say  that  the  silence  of  their 
authors  would  be  more  valuable  than  their  speech. 
It  seems  that  there  is  a  certain  amount  of  periodical 
space  to  be  filled  and  a  certain  number  of  men  who 
live  by  filling  it  with  their  pieces.    When  the  weather 
gets  warm  and  they  find  it  hard  to  write  anything 
that  will  be  read  what  else  can  these  men  do  but 
fall  to  solving  all  the  problems   of  the  nation — the 
South    in    particular — in   order   to  settle   their   own 
pressing  question,  "How  shall  I  manage  to  say  some- 
thing that  will  sell  and  provide  for  my  board  bill?" 
And  then,  too,  the  "chautauqua  season"  is  a  very  dan- 
gerous period  of  the  year,   especially   during  those 
years  when  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  is  not 
in  session  and  the  thrifty  statesman  who  is  deficient 
in  a  sense  of  responsibility  for  his  words,  is  "out  for 
the  stuff,"  and  when  platform  managers,  who  have  an 
eye  for  gate  receipts  only,  are  out  hunting  for  "draw- 
ing" sensationalists,  without  regard  for  the  kind  of 
things  that  the  sensation-mongers  may  pour  out  of 
their  easy-acting  mouths. 

What  a  pity  these  men  undertake  to  handle  mat- 
ters so  serious  and  so  complex!  Yea,  what  a  peril! 
Adventurous  sportsmen  discharging  firearms  in  a 
powder-house  would  not  be  a  greater  menace  to  good 
order  and  security. 


88  MUST   PUT    DOWN    THE    MOB. 

Good  men,  helped  of  God,  can  solve  all  our  ques- 
tions if  they  can  only  find  a  way  to  muzzle  the  agita- 
tors, or  if  they  can  find  a  way  to  switch  the  agitators 
off  on  subjects  that  they  can  talk  about  without  en- 
dangering the  peace  of  society.  I  think,  for  example, 
that  the  race  question  could  be  settled  if  we  can  find 
out  how  to  silence  men  who  make  merchandise  out 
of  its  discussion.  For  one,  I  am  not  nearly  so  afraid 
of  the  race  question  as  I  am  of  the  race  of  "chautau- 
qua  platformers  and  performers !"  The  apprehension 
of  the  mischief  they  may  do  to  all  the  races  in  our 
country  haunts  me  all  through  the  dog-days.  I  know 
how  to  get  on  with  the  negroes,  for  I  was  brought  up 
with  them.  But  one  of  these  problem-solving  talkers 
scares  me.  I  am  not  afraid  of  him  for  what  he  really 
is,  but  for  what  some  well-meaning  people  may  take 
him  to  be.  A  bleating  calf  jumping  suddenly  from 
under  a  chinquapin  bush  may  make  a  really  gentle 
horse  run  away ;  or  a  moon-eyed  horse  hitched  along- 
side a  reliable  nag  may  shy  at  what  he  thinks  is  a 
bogie  and  frighten  his  mate  into  the  most  dangerous 
misbehavior.  It  is  thus  some  good  men  have  been 
led  to  apologize  for  lynching.  They  have  seen  night- 
mares until  they  are  prepared  to  conjure  with  a  real 
horror  in  order  to  down  a  ghost. 

The  situation  in  the  South  is  one  of  difficulty,  of 
course.  So  is  the  situation  in  Chicago,  or  that  of 
Paris,  or  that  of  London,  or  that  of  New  York.  Our 
homes  in  the  South  are  safer  than  the  homes  of  Chi- 
cago. Give  me  the  negro  any  time,  in  preference  to 
the  anarchists  and  free  lovers.  In  fact,  I  do  not  wish 
to  live  in  any  country  where  there  are  no  negroes. 

But  if  our  difficulties  were  a  thousand-fold  greater 
than  they  are,  lynchings  would  not  remove  them. 
Such  deeds  of  lawlessness  multiply  aM  our  troubles. 
If  these  things  must  be  anywhere  in  our  country,  let 


MUST    PUT    DOWN    THE    MOB.  89 

them  be  confined  to  the  North,  where  a  denser  popu- 
lation, composed  of  all  sorts  of  heterogeneous  ele- 
ments, furnish  greater  provocations  to  them,  and,  per- 
force, more  excuse  for  them. 

We  do  not  want  any  such  barbarities  to  defend  our 
Southern  civilization. 


RACES  MUST  SEPARATE,  ASSERTS  BISHOP 
TURNER. 


One  of  the  features  of  the  mass  meeting  yesterday 
afternoon  at  the  People's  tabernacle  was  the  address 
of  Bishop  Henry  M.  Turner  on  the  subject,  "Is  the 
Pulpit  Equal  to  the  Times?  If  so,  Why  this  Quibble 
that  Frightens  the  Common  People  and  Seemingly 
Paralyzes  Labor  in  the  Farming  Sections?" 

Bishop  Turner  devoted  a  considerable  portion  of 
his  time  in  replying  to  Dr.  H.  S.  Bradley,  who  in  an 
address  last  Monday  declared  that  the  separation  of 
the  races  was  a  chimerical  proposition.  Bishop  Tur- 
ner declared  that  separation  of  the  races  was  the 
only  solution  of  the  race  problem,  though  he  did  not 
expect  all  the  negroes  to  rush  out  of  the  country. 
What  he  wishes  is  for  the  negro  to  be  given  an  oppor- 
tunity to  go  to  Africa  if  he  so  desires. 

He  spoke  as  follows : 

"Mr.  Chairman — Among  the  remarks  that  I  shall 
make  on  this  occasion  will  be  a  few  in  reply  to  Rev. 
Dr.  H.  S.  Bradley,  who  fills  one  of  the  first  pulpits  of 
Atlanta,  and  is  the  pastor  of  a  congregation  cultured 
and  refined. 

"I  venerate  the  distinguished  divine,  Rev.  Dr.  H. 
S.  Bradley,  scholarly,  eloquent,  humane,  as  he  is,  and 
I  believe  he  is  a  Christian  gem  of  the  first  water.  In- 
deed, I  have  received  a  personal  recognition  from 
him  that  I  have  been  accorded  by  no  other  white  min- 
ister in  the  city  of  Atlanta,  while  all  have  treated  me 
with  respect.  But  it  so  happens  that  God  made  me 
out  of  that  kind  of  material  which  enables  me  to  rise 

(90) 


KACES    MUST   SEPARATE.  91 

above  personal  considerations  sufficiently  to  agree 
with  my  enemies  and  differ  with  my  friends  when  the 
question  at  issue  requires  it.  Personal  likes  and  dis- 
likes have  nothing  to  do  with  my  honest  opinions. 

"The  learned  doctor  last  Monday  night,  the  2ist 
instant,  delivered  an  elegant  and  rhetorical  speech  be- 
fore a  mass  meeting  of  my  race  (and  I  was  present) 
against  the  separation  of  the  races — I  mean  the  white 
and  black  races,  or,  as  the  Africans  say,  the  Buchra 
man  and  the  Otutu  man.  He  hurled  his  florid  re- 
marks against  negro  emigration,  segregation,  any 
form  of  separation  or  any  movement  that  would  con- 
template negro  concretion,  civilly  or  politically,  and 
as  I  saw  it  presented  one  of  the  most  eloquent  and  il- 
logical addresses  I  have  heard  for  a  great  while — not 
because  he  is  wanting  in  logical  ability  and  attain- 
ments, for  I  have  heard  him  both  in  the  pulpit,  on  the 
platform,  and  have  read  after  him,  but  because  he 
was  handling  a  subject  which  he  had  never  studied 
with  a  view  of  its  practical  results,  as  the  early  his- 
tory of  Rome,  of  North  America,  of  South  America 
and  of  Australia,  and  indeed  the  history  of  all  peoples 
and  nations  would  have  shown  the  folly  of  his  posi- 
tion. For  emigration  is  the  philosophy  of  ancient 
and  modern  history. 

"The  bulk  of  white  men  know  but  little  about  the 
inner  feelings  and  idiosyncrasies  of  the  negro,  and 
when  they  speak  about  black  men  emigrating  to  bet- 
ter their  conditions  they  signally  fail  by  reason  of  the 
fact  that  it  is  not  a  question  that  concerns  them 
enough  to  give  it  deep  and  protracted  thought.  I 
know  there  are  many  white  men  who  ride  into  popu- 
larity by  pretending  to  know  all  about  the  negro,  but 
they  only  know  the  ignorant  and  scullion  side  of  him. 

"In  this  country,  where  white  represents  God,  and 
black  the  devil,  but  little  thought  is  given  to  the  black 


92  RACES    MUST   SEPARATE. 

man's  future.  Everything  that  concerns  the  negro 
is  whittled  down  to  the  present  contingencies,  and 
the  eternal  .future  which  involves  and  comprehends 
change,  revolution,  mutation  and  the  mighty  destiny 
of  races,  is  but  little  thought  of,  and  if  the  negro  does 
not  think  about  it  himself,  it  will  receive  but  little  at- 
tention and  our  status  as  a  race,  to  use  the  language 
of  the  elder  Judge  Lumpkin,  is  so  ignoble,  and  the 
foolish  scarecrow  of  social  equality  has  become  such 
a  hobgoblin  with  the  ignorant  masses,  that  we  are 
further  apart  in  spirit  and  sympathy  than  heaven  and 
hell.  We  are  as  ignorant  of  each  other  as  races  as  if 
we  did  not  live  in  the  same  world.  The  very  condi- 
tions that  surround  and  confront  us  forbid  a  white 
man  from  having  any  real  knowledge  of  the  negro, 
and  I  could  bring"  a  hundred  illustrations  to  establish 
this  fact.  It  was  verified  the  other  night  in  Dr.  Brad- 
ley's  address  when  he  said  the  negroes  were  Ameri- 
can citizens,  and  do  not  wish  to  be  segregated.  I 
grant  that  the  doctor  represented  a  large  portion,  for 
as  the  Savannah  News  says,  'The  negro  is  not  yet  a 
nation  building  race,'  but  if  he  will  put  a  steamer  be- 
tween here  and  Africa  and  make  the  rates  of  travel  as 
•cheap  as  white  emigrants  get  from  Europe  to  Amer- 
ica 4,000,000  will  leave  as  soon  as  they  can  adjust  their 
little  affairs.  While  I  am  not  burdened  to  death  with 
intelligence,  I  have  too  much  sense  to  say  that  ail 
would  go.  I  do  not  know  as  half  would  go.  Jahn  in 
his  Biblical  archaeology  says  that  not  half  of  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel  ever  left  Egypt  for  the  promised  land, 
but  the  vast  multitude  which  remained  has  never  been 
heard  of  from  that  day  till  this.  No  people  in  the 
world's  history,  who  were  not  self-reliant  and  who  are 
not  prompted  by  their  inner  nature  to  sue  for  better 
conditions,  have  ever  reached  the  plane  of  respecta- 
bility. Indeed,  they  are  invariably  crushed  out  of  ex- 


KACES    MUST    SEPARATE.  93 

istence  and  exterminated.  I  have  been  reading  his- 
tory fifty  years  and  over  and  if  there  is  any  exception 
to  this  rule,  outside  possibly  of  the  Saxons  who  were 
absorbed,  and  also  did  much  of  the  absorbing  by  vir- 
tue of  being  of  the  same  color  and  having  the  most 
beautiful  women  on  earth  at  that  time,  I  would  be 
pleased  to  have  them  pointed  out. 

"The  doctor  says  the  negro  is  an  American  citizen. 
I  wish  he  was  correct.  Twelve  millions  of  colored 
people  of  the  United  States  would  throw  their  hats, 
parasols  and  umbrellas  heaven  high,  if  possible,  if  his 
declaration  about  the  citizenship  of  the  negro  was  a 
reality,  or  could  be  established.  Surely  the  doctor  has 
not  been  apprised  of  the  fact  that  the  conclave  in 
Washington,  D.  C.,  called  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court,  has  issued  a  legislative  decision  taking  away 
every  vestige  of  his  civil  rights,  and  in  the  recent  Ala- 
bama case  has  declared  his  political  rights  a  nullity, 
and  outside  of  the  right  to  pay  taxes  and  work  on  the 
roads  he  has  not  a  single  right  that  would  prompt 
him  to  be  a  man.  I  would  mention  the  degradation 
this  decision,  or  these  decisions  (for  there  are  three 
of  them),  have  inflicted  upon  the  negro,  in  detail,  but 
it  would  be  too  voluminous  and  do  no  good ;  but  I 
will  give  $500  if  any  man  will  show  me  such  a  decis- 
ion from  any  court  of  last  resort  in  the  history  of  the 
world.  Its  uniqueness  stands  in  the  fact  that  thev 
legislated  and  decided  at  the  same  time.  No  instance 
of  the  kind  is  found  in  the  chronicles  of  the  nation. 

"But  just  at  this  point  I  beg  to  ask  the  doctor  if 
he  could  have  any  respect  for  a  man,  or  any  set  of 
men,  who  would  sit  quietly  under  the  condition  of 
things  that  confront  the  negro  in  this  country?  If 
he  wants  to  know  what  I  mean,  just  let  him  color  his 
face  (for  white  is  not  a  color)  and  attempt  to  be  a 
man  and  a  gentleman  for  one  day,  and  he  will  under- 


94  RACES    MUST    SEPARATE. 

stand  the  meaning  thoroughly.  We  are  daily  the  sub- 
jects of  comment  and  misrepresentation.  God  :s 
charged  with  folly  for  attempting  to  make  a  man  and 
failing  to  complete  His  job,  and  he  is  assigned  to  the 
realm  of  inferiority,  and  yet  more  laws  have  been  en- 
acted by  the  different  legislatures  of  the  country,  and 
more  judicial  decisions  have  been  delivered  and  pro- 
claimed against  this  piece  of  inferiority  called  negro 
than  have  been  issued  against  any  people  since  time 
began.  It  would  appear  that  the  negro  is  the  greatest 
man  on  earth  if  we  are  to  judge  from  the  judicial  de- 
cisions in  the  code  books  of  the  country  to  keep  him 
down. 

"The  Pilgrim  fathers  did  not  have  to  contend  with 
one-half  of  the  legal  fetters,  but  they  left  the  old  coun- 
try and  sought  a  land  where  they  could  develop  the 
mighty  forces  that  heaven  had  implanted  in  their  na- 
tures, and  the  result  is  a  great  and  powerful  people 
have  been  developed.  Which  does  the  doctor  have 
the  highest  respect  for — the  early  settlers  of  Plymouth 
in  Massachusetts  and  Jamestown,  Va.,  or  the  doci'e 
negro  who  will  not  try  to  help  himself? 

"I  have  been  singled  out  in  this  country  as  the 
chief  factor  in  the  African  emigration  movement,  and 
as  such  I  believe  that  I  have  received  all  of  a  hundred 
thousand  letters,  some  of  them  containing  dozens  and 
dozens  of  names,  who  are  clamoring  for  transporta- 
tion conveniences  and  cheap  rates  from  this  to  the 
land  of  our  ancestors,  so  they  can  return  to  Africa 
without  having  to  pay  their  way  to  New  York  City, 
then  to  Liverpool,  England,  and  then  to  Africa,  which 
they  have  to  do  at  present,  costing  them  more  on  the 
cars  to  New  York  than  white  people  have  to  pay  from 
Queenstown,  Liverpool,  Hamburg  and  other  points 
to  come  to  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Boston,  New 
"Orleans  and  Savannah. 


RACES    MUST    SEPARATE.  95 

"Think  of  it,  557  steamers,  besides  sailing  ships,  are 
hugging  the  shores  of  Africa  the  year  round  from 
Europe,  and  not  one  from  the  United  States.  These 
European  steamers,  carrying  to  her  ports  hundreds  of 
millions,  if  not  a  billion  dollars  of  commerce  annu- 
ally, and  not  the  worth  of  a  nickel  of  commerce  from 
the  United  States.  Some  of  us  have  been  trying  for 
years  to  get  this  government  to  subsidize  a  ship  for 
mail  purposes,  and  let  it  serve  as  a  transport  for  emi- 
gration and  commerce,  as  a  start  to  the  movement, 
but  up  to  the  present  our  efforts  have  been  fruitless. 
President  Harrison  would  have  done  something,  but 
he  was  afraid  of  public  sentiment.  President  Cleve- 
land saw  the  philosophy  of  it,  but  was  contending  with 
the  Hawaiian  question  and  disposed  of  it  by  saying 
time  would  make  it  all  right;  and  time  will  do  it. 
This  nation,  or  its  aggregated  people,  will  either  have 
to  open  up  a  highway  to  Africa  for  the  discontented 
black  man  or  the  negro  question  will  flinder  this  gov- 
ernment. 

"There  will  be  no  peace  to  the  United  States  as 
long  as  the  negro  question  is  an  issue.  Might  may 
hold  the  scepter  and  sway  legislative  and  judicial  pow- 
er for  a  time,  and  even  suppress  free  speech  and  tyran- 
nize over  the  dissatisfaction  of  a  people  for  a  while, 
but  right  will  step  to  the  front  in  its  own  good  time 
and  twist  the  scepter  from  the  hands  of  might,  for 
the  reason  that  God  is  right.  A  United  States  Sena- 
tor from  a  Southern  State  said  to  me  some  time  ago: 
'I  am  opposed  to  your  emigration  agitation,  espe- 
cially about  returning  to  Africa  in  any  numbers.  You 
are  keeping  up  an  unnecessary  excitement,'  but  finallv 
said :  'Remember,  Turner,  that  I  am  opposed  to  it  as 
a  white  man,  as  your  race  furnishes  us  with  a  cheap 
and  obedient  labor;  but  if  I  was  a  negro  I  will  be 


96  RACES    MUST   SEPARATE. 

d d  if  I  would  not  leave  this  country  before  the 

sun  goes  down.' 

"I  do  not  regard  Hon.  John  Temple  Graves  as  the 
quintessence  of  infallibility,  especially  when  he  is  dis- 
cussing and  commenting  upon  the  intellectual  and 
moral  status  of  my  race,  as  he  represented  them  in 
some  respects,  in  Chautauqua  and  Chicago,  while  he 
only  expressed  the  current  opinion  of  the  white  people 
generally ;  but  the  remedy  that  he  pointed  out  to  the 
American  people,  in  regard  to  the  existing  condition 
of  things,  in  my  opinion,  and  in  the  opinion  of  sober 
thinking  people  generally,  raises  him  to  a  national 
majesty,  and  makes  him  the  greatest  statesman  and 
philosopher  in  the  land.  Among  the  notable  and  il- 
lustrious men  of  the  country  Mr.  Graves  towers  above 
them  all.  Bismarck  never  offered  to  Germany,  nor 
Gladstone  to  England,  a  wiser  measure  and  a  more 
philosophical  proposition,  than  Mr.  Graves  has  of- 
fered to  the  American  people.  He  is  evidently  a  wide- 
ly read  scholar,  a  master  logician,  and  has  the  courage 
of  his  convictions,  and  defies  public  criticism,  when 
he  tells  the  white  and  black  man  in  this  country  they 
must  separate,  for  separation  is  the  ultimatum,  and 
that  alone  will  bring  peace  to  this  nation. 

"I  will  tell  the  black  man  what  Mr.  Graves  thought, 
but  was  reluctant  to  express.  Your  very  existence 
depends  upon  separation.  At  present  there  is  no 
Christian  unity,  much  less  civil  and  political  unity. 
A  shameful  division  prevails. 

"When  I  speak  of  separation  I  do  not  say  that  ev- 
erybody will  go  or  must  go.  I  am  only  contending 
that  there  should  be  a  highway  made  across  the  At- 
lantic (only  3,350  miles  from  the  city  hall  of  New 
York)  for  such  black  men  and  women  as  are  self-re- 
liant and  have  those  manhood  aspirations  that  God 
planted  in  them  and  degrading  laws  will  intensify.  We 


EACES    MUST   SEPARATE.  97 

are  not  clamoring  for  rich  men,  or  men  of  respectable 
means.  We  want  smart,  energetic  and  self-reliant 
men.  If  Australia  could  be  made  one  of  the  greatest 
countries  on  earth  by  penal  convicts,  who  would  dare 
say  that  respectable  colored  men  could  not  also 
build  up  a  nation? 

"It  was  also  proclaimed  the  other  night  that  Libe- 
ria was  a  failure  and  had  played  out.  I  know  Liberia. 
I  know  Muhlenburg  Station.  I  presided  over  an  an- 
nual conference  there  of  ordained  ministers,  and  I 
am  prepared  to  say  that  a  finer  republic  is  not  found 
on  earth  than  Liberia,  consisting  of  35,000  civilized 
and  a  million  and  a  half  of  heathen  people.  Monro- 
via, the  capital,  with  a  population  of  6,000,  is  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  cities,  as  seen  from  the  ocean,  that 
either  England  or  America  can  present. 

"The  state  house,  presidential  mansion,  cabinet  de- 
partments, and  a  score  of  cities  in  the  republic,  and 
the  ships  that  stand  in  her  various  harbors,  tell  their 
own  story,  and  there  is  not  a  bar-room  in  the  republic 
to  curse  and  ultimately  damn  her  young  men.  If 
Georgia  has  played  out,  then  Liberia  has  played  out, 
but  I  grant  that  Liberia  needs  immigrants,  and  a 
number  of  business  men  to  help  develop  and  bring  in- 
to utilization  her  resources.  I  mean  her  gold,  silver, 
diamonds,  coal  and  to  till  the  richest  soil  on  earth. 

"I  must  not  make  my  remarks  too  long.  Let  me 
say,  however,  that  the  negro  is  the  richest  man  in  the 
world,  if  he  had  intelligence  enough  to  know  it.  We 
will  get  that  intelligence,  however,  in  God's  own  good 
time.  The  American  negro,  with  a  few  exceptions,  is 
the  lowest  specimen  of  the  African  tribes.  The  supe- 
rior African  sold  us  inferior  Africans  to  the  white 
men.  We  were  slaves  hundreds  and  thousands  of 
years  to  our  African  masters  before  we  were  sold  to 
this  country  to  become  the  slaves  of  our  white  mas- 

7  ns 


98  RACES   MUST    SEPARATE. 

ters ;  but  this  lower  type  has  to  return  in  numbers,  to 
civilize  and  Christianize  the  higher  type,  and  the  white 
man  has  to  help  us  to  do  it,  and  God  will  see  he  does 
it,  or  the  nation  that  owes  us  $40,000,000,000  for  two 
hundred  years'  work  performed  and  services  rendered 
will  commence  to  wane  and  end  in  broken  fragments, 
like  the  Roman  empire.  I  grant  that  the  outlook  for 
the  future  between  the  two  races  looks  far  more  pa- 
cific than  what  it  did. 

"The  assistance  rendered  by  our  white  {riends  to 
Morris  Brown  college,  especially,  where  we  hope  to 
train  African  missionaries,  and  elevate  that  portion  of 
our  race,  who  will  live  and  die  here,  seems  to  tinge  the 
future  with  brighter  prospects.  But,  God  sent  the  ne- 
gro here  through  his  negative  providence,  to  imbibe 
civilization  and  Christianity  from  this  giant  white  race, 
and  then  redeem  the  land  of  his  ancestors,  and  he 
must  do  it  and  will,  ultimately,  do  it." 


RACE  SEGREGATION. 


An  Address  by   BISHOP  Lucius  H.  HOLSEY,  D.D.,  of  the  C. 

M.  E.  Church,  before  the  National  Sociological  Society, 

at  the  I/incoln  Temple  Congregational  Church. 


Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  and  Fellow  Citizens :  Per- 
haps there  is  no  question  or  problem  that  confronts 
the  wisdom,  the  patriotism,  and  philanthropy  of  Amer- 
ican citizenship,  greater  and  farther  reaching  in  effect 
and  results  than  the  perplexing  and  momentous  ques- 
tion of  the  racial  problem. 

According  to  public  sentiment  and  private  judg- 
ment, according  to  the  construction  of  the  fabric  of 
.society,  the  enactment  of  its  laws  and  their  execution, 
there  is  a  serious  racial  question ;  a  question  that 
strikes  deep  into  the  recesses  of  American  life,  taking 
hold  of  the  basis  of  government  and  its  advancing 
and  expanding  civilization ;  a  profound  question,  upon 
which  hinges  the  peace,  happiness,  and  prosperity  of 
all  the  people,  and  the  possibilities  and  destiny  of  a 
great  African  race. 

From  any  view-point  we  may  take,  it  is  silly,  if  not 
madness,  to  ignore  or  set  at  naught  this  great  prob- 
lem of  the  races.  That  there  is  a  problem,  no  one, 
who  has  surveyed  the  field  and  weighed  and  meas- 
ured the  active  and  operative  factors  therein  contain- 
ed, can  deny.  Seeking  for  the  permanent  adjustment 
of  this  question,  and  its  satisfactory  solution,  a  multi- 
plicity of  theories,  of  many  degrees  and  forms,  have 
been  presented  for  consideration.  It  also  appeals  to 
the  candid  thought  of  the  North  and  of  the  South, 

(99) 


100  RACE   SEGREGATION. 

and  to  the  patience  of  the  black  race,  who,  by  no  de- 
sign of  their  own,  are  yet  the  cause  of  conflicting 
forces.  It  may  be  presumed  as  axiomatic  that  to  ev- 
ery problem  that  arises  out  of  the  government  of  a 
nation  there  may  be  found  a  method  of  adjustment 
and  solution.  Just  as  sure  as  all  the  parties  concerned 
seek  the  solution  with  patriotism  and  philanthropic 
impulse,  any  question  thus  arising  may  be  settled  in 
a  way  to  preserve  the  peace,  protect  the  civil  order, 
and  advance  the  interest  of  all. 

As  our  subject  is  "race  segregation,"  or  the  separa- 
tion of  the  races,  we  shall  state  what  is  meant.  Segre- 
gation does  not  mean  colonization,  exportation  or 
emigration.  It  does  not  mean  the  banishment  of  Afro- 
Americans  to  any  foreign  country  or  realm,  within 
the  limits  or  beyond  the  limits  of  our  flag.  Neither 
does  it  mean  for  Afro-Americans  to  be  sent  to  tht 
Pacific  islands,  acquired  and  held  by  our  Federal  gov- 
ernment, but  it  means  that  the  government  set  apart 
some  territory,  or  parts  of  some  of  the  public  domain,, 
for  the  specific  purpose  of  forming  a  State  or  States 
for  qualified  Afro-American  citizens.  This  is  what  we 
understand  and  advocate  as  segregation,  and  this  is 
what  we  shall  proceed  to  elaborate  and  set  forth  as 
clearly  and  briefly  as  we  can. 

The  first  reason  for  segregation  lies  in  the  domi- 
nant fact  that  the  infinite  volume  of  racial  prejudice 
makes  it  impossible  for  the  two  separate  and  distinct 
races  to  live  together  in  the  same  territory  in  harmo- 
nious relations,  each  demanding  equal  political  rights 
and  equal  citizenship.  Whether  prejudice  is  an  at- 
tribute of  human  nature  or  the  cultivated  and  cher- 
ished adjunct  of  circumstances  is  a  subtle  question 
which  we  do  not  now  attempt  to  discuss.  But  we 
know  from  history  and  by  experience  that  it  does  ex- 
ist, and  it  is  as  old  as  those  racial  traits  of  physical 


RACE    SEGREGATION.  101 

character  by  which  one  race  is  distinguished  from  an- 
other. Whether  fundamental  or  cultivated,  it  has 
played  a  great  part  in  the  world's  civilization  and  the 
history  of  the  nations,  often  affecting  the  interests  of 
universal  humanity.  It  is  deepest  and  bitterest  and 
has  its  most  prolonged  conflict  when  it  hinges  upon 
opposite  racial  peculiarities  and  characteristics.  In 
other  words,  prejudice  is  the  strongest  and  the  most 
enduring  where  extremes  in  natural  racial  physical 
•distinctions  meet,  and  where  it  is  assumed  that  one  is 
inferior  to  the  other,  because  of  color,  previous  condi- 
tion or  of  tribal  or  natural  origin  and  relation.  Al- 
though it  is  difficult  to  assimilate  very  distinct  and 
dissimilar  races  and  peoples,  yet  it  is  the  clearest  thing 
to  impartial  decision  that  the  Afro-American  people 
.accept  and  absorb  very  readily  the  pith  and  germs  of 
civic  life  or  take  on  the  present  civilization.  It  also 
seems  that,  so  far  as  the  Southern  portion  of  our 
country  is  concerned,  this  prejudice  is  not  only  des- 
tined to  continue  indefinitely,  but  is  on  the  increase 
and  growing  in  volume,  force  and  depth.  The  ruling 
people  of  the  South  not  only  make  it  a  special  end  to 
be  obtained  and  to  dominate  the  South  with  it,  but 
efforts  are  made  to  spread  it  in  the  North  and  circulate 
it  through  all  parts  of  the  nation,  so  as  to  make  the 
down-trodden  African  people  to  be  despised  by  those 
who  have  shown  their  friendship  for  them  in  the  past. 
The  bitterness,  the  antagonisms,  the  racial  feuds  and 
bloody  riots  in  which  the  black  man  is  the  extreme 
sufferer,  grow  out  of  this  fearful  element  in  human 
nature.  As  the  races  now  stand,  and  as  they  must 
stand  in  the  South,  there  is  no  power  inherent  in  gov- 
ernment to  remove  it  or  destroy  it,  or  even  to  ameli- 
orate or  soften  its  force  or  ferocity.  Those  elements 
.and  factors  by  which  the  phases  of  social  and  political 
life  have  been  changed  and  made  to  fit  and  harmonize 


102  RACE   SEGREGATION. 

with  new  relations  and  conditions  have  no  perceptible 
effect  or  bearing  in  the  present  case.  Time  measured 
by  decades  and  years,  the  recognized  agency  and  the 
ancient  power  that  revolutionize  thought,  opinions, 
judgment  and  actions,  cannot  change  or  destroy  this 
old  gory  monster  of  the  centuries.  It  is  deaf  to  rea- 
son and  to  all  appeals  upon  grounds  of  justice,  equity 
and  the  high  principles  of  righteousness  and  mercy, 
which  are  the  only  true  bases  of  a  just  government. 
Christianity,  like  other  religions,  stands  appalled  in 
its  massive  shadow  and  quails  before  its  grim  visage. 
It  denies  and  despises  "the  brotherhood  of  man  and 
the  fatherhood  of  God,"  even  while  it  professes  the 
religion  of  the  lowly  Nazarene.  The  force  of  arms, 
the  triumph  of  conquering  armies,  the  commands  and 
edicts  of  governments  neither  destroy  nor  control  its 
savage  nature  nor  reduce  the  plenitude  of  its  power. 

Not  only  does  prejudice  lead  to  oppression,  the 
subversion  of  justice  and  right,  but  there  is  nothing 
more  serious  and  more  in  evidence  than  the  fact  that 
there  is  a  vast  legalized  scheme  throughout  the  South 
to  set  the  iron  heel  more  permanently  and  desperately 
upon  the  head  of  the  black  man  as  a  race,  and  as  in- 
dividual characters.  There  would  be  hope  to  the  re- 
jected and  aspiring  Afro-American  if  good  character 
and  becoming  behavior  would  or  could  count  for  any- 
thing in  the  civic  arena.  But  we  are  now  confronted 
by  conditions  where  merit  in  the  black  man  does  not 
weigh  one  iota  in  human  rights,  and  very  little  in  hu- 
man life,  if  that  life  and  character  is  under  a  black  or 
brown  skin.  Learning,  personal  accomplishments, 
the  achievement  of  wealth,  the  reign  of  morality,  and 
skilled  handicraft  amount  to  nothing  whatever  in  the 
black  man.  Merit  and  fitness  for  citizenship  and  ad- 
vanced qualifications  for  the  high  and  holy  functions 
of  civil  life  cannot  win  for  him  the  rights  and  safety 


EACE    SEGREGATION.  103 

that  is  the  natural  and  God-given  inheritance  of  all. 
Nowhere  in  the  South  is  the  black  man  as  safe  in  his 
person  and  property  as  is  the  white  man.  No  negro 
can  feel  the  same  assurance  of  protection  and  safety, 
even  in  the  absence  of  the  mob,  as  those  of  the  oppo- 
site or  ruling  race.  The  laws  and  police  regulations 
are  one  thing  to  the  white  people,  but  quite  another 
thing  to  the  black  people. 

Black  men  and  black  women,  though  cultured  and 
refined,  are  treated  as  serfs  and  subjected  to  every 
imaginable  insult  and  degradation  that  can  be  invent- 
ed or  discovered  by  an  ill-plighted  and  perverse  in- 
genuity. 

But  especially  do  we  see  and  feel  the  power  of  op- 
pression in  the  construction  and  operation  of  the  laws 
and  that  sentiment  that  gave  them  birth  and  execu- 
tion, and  which  is  stronger,  more  exacting  than  the 
written  laws  themselves.  Ever  since  President  Hayes 
had  his  seat  in  the  White  House,  when  the  State  gov- 
ernments reverted  to  the  control  of  the  original  South, 
step  by  step,  the  legislative  enactments  have  drawn 
the  cords  of  discrimination  and  oppression  with  in- 
creasing stringency  and  an  intensifying  vindictiveness 
that  seem  phenomenal  and  inhuman.  If  by  these 
methods  of  oppression  and  hardship  entailed  on  black 
citizens  anything  could  be  gained  or  added  to  the 
happiness  and  prosperity  of  the  dominant  people, 
there  might  be  some  reason  or  cause  for  its  existence. 
No  morals  are  to  be  improved  by  it,  no  greater  degree 
of  polished  manners  is  to  be  achieved,  and  nothing 
but  self-debauchment  to  the  oppressor  and  degrada- 
tion to  the  oppressed  are  to  be  gained.  And  since 
there  is  nothing  to  be  gained,  it  is  evident  that  the 
only  object  in  view  is  to  oppress  and  destroy  the  prog- 
ress and  development  of  the  Afro-American  people, 
a  people  who  have  never  sought  to  do  them  a  wrong 


104  RACE    SEGREGATION. 

or  an  injury.  The  desire  on  their  part  is  to  make  ne- 
gro freedom  and  possibilities  a  total  and  signal  fail- 
ure, and  defeat  the  ends  of  a  better  negro  manhood, 
and  prove  as  true  the  oft-repeated  assertion  that  "the 
black  race  is  incapable  of  rising  to  the  dignity  of  a 
full-fledged  common  citizenship."  They  believe  that 
it  is  wrong  to  educate  the  negroes  beyond  a  small 
degree  of  handicraft,  suitable  only  for  the  most  me- 
nial service  and  the  smallest  wages. 

It  is  a  fact,  now  universally  known  and  acknowl- 
edged, that  the  political  rights  and  privileges  con- 
ferred on  the  black  race  by  the  general  government 
have  been  totally  and  irretrievably  annihilated  in  al- 
most every  part  of  the  South.  Where  they  have  failed 
in  total  destruction  of  these  rights  by  direct  legisla- 
tion, they  have  annulled  them  by  a  system  of  eva- 
sions and  subterfuges.  The  votes  of  black  citizens 
are  no  longer  factors  of  consideration  in  the  political 
equation,  and  they  are  shorn  of  all  those  sacred  func- 
tions and  agencies  by  which  the  highest  and  best  citi- 
zenship is  attained.  This  not  only  helps  to  degrade 
and  destroy  legitimate  aspiration  and  subverts  the 
operating  faculties  of  respectable  and  decent  man- 
hood, but  reduces  the  millions  of  the  black  race  to  a 
growing  and  enlarging  system  of  serfdom  and  politi- 
cal peonage  that  is  but  a  little  short  of  abject  slavery. 
Neither  does  it  appear  that  there  is  any  remedy  or  ap- 
peal by  which  these  flagrant  wrongs  and  perversions 
of  civil  rights  can  be  adjusted  and  made  to  comply 
with  the  demands  of  true  American  citizenship.  It 
may  be  stated  as  axiomatic,  that  no  people  can  advance 
in  true  American  citizenship  and  reach  high  moral  and 
political  ideals  in  the  functions  and  practices  of  the  fran- 
chise, when  they  are  excluded  from  it  and  from  those  re- 
sponsibilities that  must  follow  its  exercise.  The  destruc- 
tion of  a  "free  ballot  and  a  fair  count"  not  only  de- 


RACE    SEGREGATION  105 

stroys  the  national  guarantee  of  protection,  of  liberty, 
person  and  property,  but  must  prove  in  the  end  a 
threatening  calamity  to  the  Federal  compact  of  States 
and  dangerous  to  the  freedom  of  its  citizens.  In  the 
South  the  millions  of  black  people  are  denied  this 
guarantee  of  protection  to  life,  liberty  and  property, 
with  no  hope  or  chance  of  redress.  There  is  no  ap- 
peal, unless  from  Caesar  to  Caesar,  which  is  equiva- 
lent to  no  appeal  at  all.  At  the  same  time  the  general 
government  does  nothing  to  defend  and  preserve  its 
great  and  majestic  acts  of  sovereign  right  embodied 
in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  but  allows 
the  evil  to  fasten  its  grip  upon  all  the  States  of  the 
South. 

This  puts  the  negro  race  not  only  in  a  state  of  semi- 
serfdom,  but  the  methods  employed  and  the  efforts  to 
further  submerge  the  natural  and  political  rights  of 
negro  manhood  grow  apace  as  the  days  go  by.  How, 
then,  can  the  Afro-American  rise  to  the  dignity  of 
good  citizenship  and  aspire  to  its  possibilities,  when 
political  rights,  privileges  and  agencies  are  taken  from 
him?  Can  he  make  bricks  without  straw,  or  do  the 
impossible?  Indeed,  he  is  in  a  deplorable  condition, 
from  whatever  standpoint  we  view  the  situation. 

It  has  been  supposed  by  most  of  the  leading  negro 
men,  as  well  as  many  philanthropic  friends  in  the 
North,  that  whenever  the  negro  is  prepared  for  the 
•duties  and  responsibilities  of  citizenship,  by  culture, 
wealth  and  moral  standing,  and  that  whenever  he  be- 
-comes  a  skilled  artisan  and  scientific  farmer,  then  as 
a  race  the  white  people  of  the  South  will  bestow  upon 
him  equal  political  privileges  with  themselves.  And 
thus  it  is  claimed  that  a  certain  sort  of  education  and 
training  is  calculated  to  settle  the  problem  of  the 
races.  At  first  glimpse  this  seems  a  fair  presumption, 
and  maybe  it  ought  to  be  SO',  and  we  heartily  wish 


106  RACE    SEGREGATION. 

that  it  might  so  result.  But  experience  contradicts  it 
and  leaves  us  hopeless  of  obtaining  the  rights  and 
privileges  of  suffrage  and  cognate  rights  of  citizen- 
ship. 

To  make  this  clearer,  no  man  of  color,  no  matter 
how  cultured  and  worthy,  or  however  accomplished, 
refined  and  fitted,  has  ever  been  allowed  to  occupy  the 
same  civic  plane  with  the  white  man  of  the  South  for 
a  single  hour.  In  this  respect  Bishop  Turner,  Frederick 
Douglass,  or  Dr.  Booker  T.  Washington  has  no  more 
chance  than  the  most  degraded  of  our  race.  It  would 
approximate  a  small  riot  should  such  negro  celebri- 
ties attempt  to  enter  a  hotel  or  public  resort,  assuming 
the  airs  of  equality  on  the  civic  plane.  Hence  all  ne- 
groes are  excluded  from  positions  and  places  of  lucra- 
tive employment,  with  the  irrevocable  negation,  "No- 
negroes  are  wanted."  He  may  be  better  prepared 
than  the  white  applicant,  but  prejudice  forbids  the 
black  race  to  enter.  As  the  black  man  of  the  South 
approximates  the  standard  of  Anglo-Saxon  civic  life 
in  its  best  phases  and  highest  standard  of  excellence, 
race  feelings,  antagonisms,  and  antipathies  will  in- 
crease in  bitterness,  extent  and  intensity.  And  this 
will  be  so  as  long  as  one  race  is  white  and  the  other 
black,  both  occupying  the  same  physical  territory. 

There  is  no  force  or  power,  apparently,  at  command 
to  regulate  and  harmonize  diverse  elements  and  social 
agencies  so  dissimilar  as  are  seen  in  the  racial  phase 
of  the  body  politic.  As  long  as  the  negro  is  a  black 
man,  and  as  long  as  the  opposite  individual  is  a  white 
man,  so  long  must  the  social  factors  and  political  en- 
tities war  against  each  other. 

Race  traits  and  race  peculiarities  are  the  natural 
and  enduring  faculties  that  prolong  the  war  and  the 
bitter  strife  of  inharmonious  relations. 

It  is  true,  legally  allowed  amalgamation  would  set- 


EACE    SEGREGATION.  107 

tie  all  racial  difficulties  by  the  natural  process  of  ab- 
sorption and  disintegration  of  racial  characteristics, 
but  that  is  a  thing  unthinkable,  unlegalizable  and  be- 
yond the  realms  of  debate.  It  is  undeniable  that  amal- 
gamation is  going  on  in  the  South,  and  legal  mar- 
riages to  some  extent  in  the  North ;  but  in  both  sec- 
tions of  the  country  it  is  slow,  while  the  products 
of  the  same  are  rejected  by  the  ruling  race  to  the 
same  extent  as  the  typical  negro.  Where  it  is  illegal 
it  is  a  crime,  and  conflicts  with  the  code  of  decency 
and  morality.  It  debauches  the  moral  sense  and  de- 
stroys the  purity  and  dignity  of  young  negro  mother- 
hood, and  debases  both  sexes  in  their  moral  natures. 
Legal  intermarriage  in  the  South,  although  not  wrong 
in  its  consummation,  is  a  matter  as  yet  undebatable, 
and  belongs  only  to  the  future. 

But  comparing  the  present  situation  with  the  his- 
tory of  Anglo-Saxon  life,  we  see  no  chance  for  the 
negro  race  to  hold  its  identity  of  racial  traits  and  char- 
acteristics, while  the  percentage  of  Negro  blood  in- 
fused into  Anglo-Saxon  veins  is  too  small  to  change, 
to  any  perceptible  degree,  the  distinctive  features  of 
visible  or  physical  character. 

As  long  as  the  two  races  live  in.  the  same  territory  in 
immediate  eontact,  their  relations  will  be  such  as  to  inter- 
mingle to  that  degree  where  "half-bloods,"  quarter-bloods, 
and  a  mongrel  progeny  will  result.  This  is  not  only  go- 
ing on  now,  but  is  destined  to  annihilate  the 
true  typical  antebellum  negro  type,  and  put  in  his 
place  a  stronger,  a  longer  lived,  and  a  more  Anglo- 
Saxon-like,  homogeneous  race.  In  other  words,  the 
negro  to  come  will  not  be  the  negro  of  the  emancipa- 
tion proclamation,  but  he  will  be  the  Anglo-Saxon- 
ized  Afro-American.  It  seems  true,  as  has  been  said, 
"No  race  can  look  the  Anglo-Saxon  in  the  face  and 
live."  Certainly  no  other  race  can  hold  its  own  in 


108  RACE   SEGREGATION. 

his  immediate  presence.  Being  in  immediate  contact, 
and  underrating  the  mental  and  moral  virtues  of  oth- 
ers and  exercising  a  sovereignty  over  them,  his  oppor- 
tunities are  enlarged  to  make  other  races  his  own  in 
consanguinity.  This  he  never  fails  to  do. 

It  is  often  said  the  difficulties,  growing  out  of  the 
race  problem,  would  be  greatly  reduced  in  enormity 
if  the  negro  would  remain  in  the  rural  districts  and  on 
the  farms.  At  first  view  this  assertion  seems  to  accord 
with  reason,  common  sense  and  the  best  interest  of 
the  race.  Certainly  it  appears  that  such  conditions 
are  the  best  for  the  negro  masses,  and  most  promotive 
of  moral  and  physical  health,  as  well  as  advancement 
in  social  and  material  economics.  Indeed,  it  is  to  be 
•regretted,  if  not  lamented,  that  great  masses  of  ne- 
groes leave  the  country  districts  and  farms  and  herd 
and  cluster  in  the  towns  and  cities.  But  since  this  is 
done,  there  must  be  some  real  cause  for  it,  a  cause 
that  enters  deeply  into  the  interest  and  material  wel- 
fare. Neither  is  it  strange  when  we  consider  the  fact 
that  in  the  country  or  rural  districts  of  the  South,  no 
negro,  or  at  best  few  negroes,  feel  safe  in  their  person 
and  property.  Often  they  are  ruthlessly  and  unnec- 
essarily insulted,  abused,  lynched,  killed,  or  driven 
from  their  homes  without  the  slightest  hope  of  protec- 
tion or  redress.  Often  their  mothers,  sisters  and 
daughters  are  corrupted  and  debauched  almost  before 
their  eyes,  yet  nothing  is  done  to  stop  the  wicked  and 
nefarious  practice  or  bring  to  punishment  the  evil 
doer.  Besides  wages  are  small,  and  in  many  instances 
are  a  mere  pittance  to  keep  soul  and  body  together. 
Of  course,  there  are  some  honorable  exceptions,  but 
they  are  few  and  far  between. 

The  school  system  in  the  country  is  a  mere  shadow 
and  a  real  farce.  The  very  fact  that  negroes  in  great 
masses  leave  the  country  and  resort  to  towns  and 


RACE   SEGREGATION. 

x 

cities  shows  an  unrest  and  a  fervid  disquietude  that 
rest  upon  apprehension  and  real  cause.  Even  those 
who  have  been  able  to  procure  homes  of  their  own, 
along  with  other  substantial  belongings,  are  in  a  state 
of  uneasiness  and  mental  perturbation.  They  do  not 
know  how  soon  they  may  be  falsely  accused  by  some 
trifling  and  envious  white  man  and  lynched  by  the 
cruel  and  bloody  mob.  For  as  soon  as  the  black  man 
in  the  rural  districts  gets  a  home  with  a  farm  attached 
and  reaches  a  state  of  prosperity,  then  the  jealousies 
of  the  white  people  are  aroused  and  excited,  and  the 
prosperous  negro  is  watched  and  criticised.  Here  the 
conflict  of  opposite  races  begins  and  ends  in  total  de- 
feat for  the  black  man.  Indeed,  there  is  little  or  no 
chance  for  the  black  man  in  the  country  if  he  grows 
rich,  polished,  and  puts  on  style,  or  tries  to  be  equal 
to  the  white  neighbor  in  civic  attainments.  Good 
breeding,  politeness,  kindness,  self-respect  and  all  the 
virtues  may  be  added  and  retained  by  a  black  man,  as 
have  been  attained  by  many,  but  these,  instead  of  help- 
ing him  to  live  in  the  esteem  of  his  white  neighbor, 
actually  put  him  in  a  precarious  condition,  and  endan- 
gers his  life  and  property.  Thus  we  see,  from  this 
view,  there  is  absolutely  no  chance  for  the  negro  race 
in  the  country  districts  to  live  and  prosper  without  a 
state  of  incertitude  and  unrest. 

It  approximates  the  largest  truth  as  well  as  covers 
the  most  dogmatic  and  momentous  phase  of  this  great 
question  that  now  confronts  and  perplexes  us,  when 
we  say  that  two  distinct  peoples  can  never  live  together  in 
the  South  in  peace,  when  the  one  is  Anglo-Saxon  and  the 
other  negro,  unless  the  negro,  as  a  race  or  en  masse,  lives 
in  the  submerged  realm  of  serfdom  and  slavery. 

It  is  true,  there  is  room  enough  in  territorial  ex- 
tent ;  there  is  abundance  of  water,  sky  and  land,  but  on 
the  social  and  political  plane  there  is  not  room  enough 


110  RACE    SEGREGATION. 

for  both  races  as  civil  equals.  The  white  people  of  the 
South  have  not  been  willing  in  the  past ;  they  are  less 
willing  now,  and  reason  and  experience  teach  us  that 
they  will  not  be  willing  at  any  time  in  the  endless  fut- 
ure for  the  race  of  black  men  to  become  their  polit- 
ical equals,  or  occupy  the  same  plane  of  freedom  and 
citizenship,  with  themselves,  no  matter  how  well  qual- 
ified they  may  be  for  it.  It  is  folly,  if  not  idiotic,  un- 
less the  supernatural  intervenes,  of  which  we  have 
promise,  to  expect  it  at  all. 

One  of  the  most  far-reaching  and  fatal  attributes  ot 
the  great  problem,  now  considered,  is  the  constant  and 
wide-spread  practice  of  debauching  the  young  mother- 
hood of  the  negro  race  by  the  ruling  people.    Perhaps 
there  is  nothing  connected  with  a  life  of  a  race  so  dam- 
aging and  destructive  to  its  morals,  mental  expansion 
and  physical  development  as  to  have  its  mothers  cor- 
rupted and  despoiled  of  their  procreative  sanctity.     It 
can  but  beget  a  race  of  weaklings  and  effeminates  in 
moral,  mental  and  physical  health.    How  a  people  are 
to  become  wise,  upright  and  healthy  in  body  and  mind 
while  their  mothers,  daughters  and  sisters  are  pol- 
luted in  their  genital  powers  is  hard  to  see.    As  like 
begets  like,  and  as  criminals  beget  criminals,  and  as 
the  parent  is  reflected  and  duplicated  in  the  natural 
offsprings,  so  the  race,  thus  corrupted  by  miscegena- 
tion and  clandestine  production,  must  ride  to  its  down- 
fall and  racial  dissolution.     It  does  not  help  the  case 
to  argue  that  the  black  women  ought  to  resist,  or 
that  their  virtue  ought  to  be  a  guarantee  of  successful 
resistance  against  attack.     True,  it  ought  to  be  so, 
and  yet  it  was  never  so.    But  environments  and  condi- 
tions have  much  to  do  with  it.    Wisdom  and  philan- 
thropy would  suggest  that  the  best  situation  be  as- 
sumed and  the  best  conditions  arranged  so  as  to  make 


EACE    SEGREGATION.  Ill 

the  resisting  power  stronger  by  diminishing  the  op- 
portunities of  the  advancing  foe. 

But  a  serious  phase  and  a  damaging  factor  of  this 
question  are  the  constant  and  universal  tendency  in 
the  South  to  gradually  reduce  the  great  bulk  of  the 
negro  race  to  a  state  of  serfdom  and  peonage.     So 
usual  and  constant  is  the  progressive  work  of  this  form 
of  degradation  and  oppression  that  even  negroes  them- 
selves seem  to  accept  it  as  a  matter  of  course,  or  as 
what  is  expected,  while  philanthropic  people  have  no 
knowledge  of  it,  or  in  some  way  pass  it  by  unheeded. 
None  but  those  who  have  lived  and  traveled  through 
the  rural  district's  of  the  South  and  made  it  a  study 
can  enter  its  many-threaded  details,  and  comprehend 
the  subtle  and  evasive  methods  by  which  the  negroes 
are  kept  at  the  lowest  ebb  of  civil  life.     It  is  in  the 
small  details  of  every-day  life,  with  the  customs,  sen- 
timent and  tendencies,  by  which  the  true  state. of  the 
race  is  seen  in  connection  with  the  ruling  people. 
Prejudice,  discrimination  and  double  dealing  crop  out 
in  almost  every  business  transaction.    White  men  ex- 
pect to  be  treated  differently  from  black  men,  while 
black  men  never  expect  to  be  treated  with  the  same 
degree  of  civility  as  white  people  receive.     There  is 
one  code  of  morals  and  civil  ethics  for  the  white- 
skinned  man  and  another  for  the  black-skinned  man, 
with  the  heaviest  of  its  iron  hand  resting  upon  the 
head  of  the  black  man,  on  his  children  and  his  civiliza- 
tion, if  civilization  it  be.    It  is  both  terrible  and  mon- 
strous, and  perhaps  the  greatest  phenomenon  of  the 
whole  racial  problem,  that  black  men,  or  any  other 
race  of  men,  would  or  could  stand  quietly  by  and  neg- 
lect the  opportunities  of  the  golden  hour  to  throw  off 
the  yoke  and  repel  the  smiting  hand  that  enwreathes 
and  rivets  the  heavy  steel  upon  their  necks.     Even 
evasions  and  the  signalizing  and  the  ponderous  stroke 


112  RACE   SEGREGATION. 

of  universal  aversion  are  neglected,  and  the  slow  death 
is  left  in  the  coils  of  the  always  forging  links  and 
lengthening  chains  of  a  second  form  of  old  slavery. 
There  are  those  who  believe  that  the  South  can  and 
ought  to  be  allowed  to  settle  the  race  problem  in  her 
own  way.  For  this  she  clamors  and  pleads  to  be  "let 
alone."  The  white  people  of  the  South  vehemently 
declare  that  they  can  settle  it,  and  we  do  not  doubt 
their  willingness  and  ability  to  do  so.  But  how? 
Where  will  the  black  man  stand  if  he  stands  at  all? 
Let  the  history  of  the  great  past  and  the  transactions 
of  the  present  answer. 

To  allow  the  South  to  settle  this  great  question  ill 
its  own  way  simply  means  to  degrade  the  black  race 
and  remand  and  doom  the  black  people  to  an  inexor- 
able peonage  and  eternal  serfdom.  The  proposition  is 
utterly  incompatible  with  reason  and  what  should  be 
expected.  Colleges  and  schools  of  high  grade,  and 
such  enabling  facilities  of  human  development  would 
become  obsolete,  and  a  liberal  and  substantial  cultural 
process,  that  alone  can  develop  a  people,  will  become 
things  of  the  past,  known  only  as  facts  of  an  historic 
age. 

The  great  majority  of  the  Southern  white  people 
hold  that  education  ruins  the  negro,  and  especially  the 
higher  education  or  collegiate  training,  and  more  es- 
pecially under  Northern  white  teachers.  They  make 
the  claim  that  it  unfits  him  for  usefulness  and  that 
kind  of  citizenship  that  belongs  to  him  as  an  inferior. 
Anything  that  takes  the  black  man  from  the  ditch,  the 
cane  farm  or  the  cotton  field  as  a  mere  menial  laborer, 
as  a  "hewer  of  wood  and  drawer  of  water,"  is  adverse 
to  his  best  estate,  God-given  and  ordained,  and  who- 
ever, therefore,  attempts  to  do  it,  or  whoever  succeeds 
or  partially  succeeds  in  doing  so,  is  the  negro's  great- 
est enemy  and  a  giant  foe  to  the  South ;  that  the  friend 


RACE    SEGREGATION.  113 

of  the  negro  is  absolutely  and  necessarily  an  enemy  of 
the  South.  This  is  so  absurd,  and  contrary  to  fact, 
reason  and  history  that  it  requires  no  serious  attempt 
for  signal  and  complete  contradiction.  Education  and 
training  help  every  creature  to  fulfill  better  the  ends 
of  being  and  the  onerous  duties  of  life.  The  trained 
horse,  the  cultured  dog,  the  domiciled  and  domesti- 
cated animals  are  all  made  better  and  more  useful  in 
their  operating  sphere  by  the  cultural  process.  Whv 
not  the  negro?  Is  he  any  less  than  the  beast  of  the 
field? 

But  the  South  cannot  settle  this  problem  any  more  than 
it  could  settle  the  long  and  bloody  problem  of  slavery.  In 
the  very  nature  of  the  case  it  is  a  national  question,  a 
question  too  big  for  the  South.  It  belongs  before  the 
bar  of  the  whole  nation.  Even  if  it  were  not  national 
in  its  scope  and  depth,  the  South  would  be  an  incom- 
petent juror,  because  she  is  not  willing  for  all  of  her 
people,  black  and  white,  to  enjoy  equal  privileges  and 
rights,  even  when  given  by  the  central  government. 
Such  a  juror  could  not  render  an  impartial  verdict. 

Again,  it  is  national  because  none  but  the  nation  has 
the  strong  hand  and  fullness  of  power  competent  to 
meet  the  issue  and  adjust  relations.  Then,  again,  it 
involves  national  honor  and  national  law.  Neither  can 
it  rest  where  it  is.  It  is  an  historic  as  well  as  a  philo- 
sophical truism  that  no  question  in  government  can 
be  settled  until  it  is  settled  right.  It  must  be  settled 
right  in  the  native  fundamentals  and  cohesive  ele- 
ments and  faculties.  All  of  the  people  must  be  free 
and  allowed  to  enjoy  their  natural  and  lawful  rights, 
or  else  the  conflict  must  and  will  continue'.  So  long 
as  there  is  a  part  of  the  people  oppressed  and  denied 
the  rights  and  privileges  of  citizenship  that  is  designed 
to  be  universal  and  applicable  to  all,  the  problem  can- 

8  DS 


114  RACE    SEGREGATION. 

not  be  settled.  It  cannot  be  settled  any  more  than  the 
question  of  slavery  could  have  been  settled,  leaving 
the  slaves  in  slavery.  Slavery,  which  stood  and  tow- 
ered and  lifted  its  hideous  form,  dripping  with  the  in- 
nocent blood  of  the  slave,  stood  for  awhile  in  the  em- 
blazoned arena  of  American  liberty,  but  it  fell  and  sent 
the  tremor  of  its  fall  through  the  approaching  decades, 
with  whose  blighting  shadow  we  are  fighting  to-day ! 
And  until  right  triumphs  and  oppression  and  wrong 
cease,  the  unity  of  truth  and  the  reign  of  God  forbid 
a  cessation  of  hostilities. 

But,  as  we  see  no  chance  for  the  black  man  to  ar- 
rive at  his  best  and  highest  possibilities  and  the  noble 
ends  of  the  best  citizenship  in  the  same  territory  with 
the  white  people  of  the  South,  segregation  is  proposed 
as  the  best,  the  most  practicable  and  desirable  meth- 
od in  the  solution  of  the  racial  problem.  Black  men 
are  as  much  citizens  of  the  American  federation  of 
States  as  white  men.  They  should  never  rest  or  cease 
legitimate  efforts  until  full  and  plenipotent  citizenship 
is  given  to  them,  the  same  as  white  men.  They  should 
contend  for  it  as  the  dearest,  as  the  highest  privilege, 
and  the  most  sacred  part  of  their  national  inheritance ! 
If  the  white  people  of  the  South  would  accord  to  the 
African  people  the  full  measure  of  citizenship  with 
themselves,  allowing  them  to  live  upon  the  same  plane 
of  civil  life,  we  could  ask  no  more,  and  the  racial  prob- 
lem would  cease  to  be  a  problem.  But  since  this  is 
not  done,  and  since  it  seems  to  be  clear  that  it  will  not 
be  done,  then  we  ask  for  a  settlement  of  our  racial 
troubles  by  separation  and  segregation  of  the  races  in 
the  South,  at  least. 

We  ask  for  a  State  or  States,  or  a  Territory,  or  a 
part  or  parts  of  Territories  within  the  limits  of  the 
United  States,  our  great  country.  To  reach  these 


RACE    SEGREGATION.  115 

ends,  the  following  propositions  may  be  considered 
within  the  limits  of  possibilities  : 

I.  There  is  a  great  problem  growing  out  of  the  fact 
that  two  distinct  races  or  peoples  are  occupying  the 
same  territory  under  the  same  government  and  laws ; 
that  they  are  so  distinct  and  dissimilar  in  racial  traits, 
instincts  and  character,  that  it  is  impossible  for  them 
to  live  together  on  equal  terms  of  social  and  political 
relation,  or  on  terms  of  equal  citizenship. 

II.  The  problem  of  the  races  is  inter-racial  and  na- 
tional, affecting  the  entire  country  in  its  vast  interests, 
prosperity  and  progress.    And,  therefore,  it  is  the  duty 
of  the  general  government  to  settle  it,  as  that  is  the 
only  power  that  can  do  it. 

III.  The  segregation  of  the  races  is  the  most  practi- 
cable, logical,  and  equitable  solution  of  the  problem. 

IV.  Segregation  and  separation  should  be  gradual 
and  classified  by  a  qualified  citizenship,  and  non-com- 
pulsory, so  as  not  to  injure  or  retard  labor,  capital, 
and  commerce  in  those  States  where  the  negro  is  an 
important  factor  of  production  and  consumption. 

V.  To  make  the  movement  operative  and  effective, 
the  negro  population  of  the  Southern  States  should 
send  petitions  to  the  President  and  the  Congress  of  the 
United   States   of   America  asking  for   segregation. 
They  should  ask  for  suitable  territory  in  the  great  re- 
public, as  legal  and  equal  citizens  of  the  Union,  and 
not  go  out  of  their  country  to  be  exposed  to  doubtful 
experiment  and  foreign  complications.     Afro-Ameri- 
cans should  remain  in  their  own  country,  and  in  the 
zone  of  greatness,  and  in  the  latitude  of  progress. 

VI.  The  government  would,  providing  segregation 
materializes,  establish  and  maintain  suitable  laws,  reg- 
ulations, and  safe  grounds  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
civil  order,  peace,  progress,  and  prosperity. 

VII.  The  place  or  places,  or  the  territory  may  be 


116  RACE    SEGREGATION. 

selected  by  competent  authority  from  the  western  parr 
of  the  public  domain,  such  as  a  part  of  the  Indian  Ter- 
ritory, New  Mexico,  or  other  parts  of  the  great  West. 

VIII.  No  white  person  or  persons  should  be  al- 
lowed to  obtain  citizenship  in  such  a  State  or  Terri- 
tory, unless  identified  with  the  negro  race  by  marriage, 
and  those  who  may  be  appointed  by  the  government 
to  expedite  and  control  the  Federal  interests,  provid- 
ed also  that  the  general  public  have  the  same  privi- 
leges, rights,  protection  and  safety  in  the  segregated 
Territory  as  in  the  other  States  of  the  Union. 

IX.  There  should  be  some  easy  and  practical  qual- 
ifications required  of  those  who  are  to  become  citizens 
of  the  segregated  Territory.     They  should  have,  at 
least,  a  reputable  character,  some  degree  of  education, 
and  perhaps  a  competency  for  one  year's   support. 
Criminals  and  undesirable  persons  should  be  kept  out, 
as  far  as  possible,  until  they  are  properly  qualified  to 
meet  the  requirements. 

It  may  be  said  and  will  be  said  that  it  will  be  impos- 
sible to  keep  the  white  man  out  and  the  black  man  in. 
But  let  it  be  remembered  that  the  object  is  not  to  keep- 
the  white  man  out  or  the  black  man  in,  but  to  estab- 
lish a  State  or  States  in  which  alone  the  Afro-Ameri- 
can people  may  dominate  by  eligibility  to  political  of- 
fice, the  public  trust  and  control ;  thus  conferring  upon 
them  all  the  rights  of  full  and  free  citizenship  enjoyed 
by  others,  and  which  is  denied  them  in  the  Southern 
States. 

•Of  course,  citizens  of  all  States  would  be  free  to 
come  and  go,  but  none  to  acquire  citizenship  unless 
identified  with  the  negro  race.  Afro-Americans  have- 
no  desire,  as  a  race,  to  create  friction,  antagonisms  and 
strife,  but  ask  and  demand  at  this  time  the  rights  and 
privileges  authorized  by  the  government. 

It  is  to  be  admitted  that  the  plan  of  segregation  here 


RACE    SEGREGATION.  117 

presented  is  environed  and  beset  with  many  difficul- 
ties. We  realize  the  stern  fact  that  any  plan  to  settle 
the  racial  problem,  which  may  be  presented,  will  have 
not  only  its  difficulties,  but  its  objectors.  But  any 
plan  which  may  be  proposed  for  the  solution  of  the 
question  cannot  be  surrounded  nor  carry  more  difficul- 
ties and  perplexities  than  the  present  state  and  condi- 
tion of  the  races.  No  plan  or  method  of  solution  can 
produce  more  bitterness,  alienation,  degradation, 
bloodshed  and  death  than  the  present  state  of  affairs. 

But  especially  will  it  be  urged  by  friends  as  well  as 
"by  the  enemies  of  the  Afro-American  people  that  the 
negro  is  incapable  of  self-government  and  control. 
But  how  do  they  know  ?  Where  has  it  ever  been  tried 
under  conditions  that  may  be  obtained  within  the  Fed- 
eral Union  ?  Besides,  if  the  government  of  the  United 
States  cannot  control  and  direct  a  few  millions  of  its 
citizens  who  may  be  segregated  for  the  peaceful  solu- 
tion of  a  great  national  problem,  it  would  be  too  weak 
and  ephemeral  to  hold  its  parts  together.  The  idea  is 
preposterous  and  fallacious  in  the  extreme. 

Not  only  has  the  negro  some  degree  of  American 
civilization  engrafted  upon  his  progressive  and  devel- 
oping manhood,  but  he  has  a  large  and  increasing  per- 
centage of  Anglo-Saxon  blood  in  his  veins,  and  conse- 
quently Anglo-Saxon  life.  He  is  not  only  patriotic 
and  devoted  to  his  country,  but  the  trend  of  events  and 
the  stern  logic  of  fact  and  principle  show  him  to  be  ca- 
pable of  civilization  and  susceptible  of  being  wrought 
into  the  social  and  political  compact.  What  is  most 
needed  for  his  development  is  a  chance  to  be  a  man, 
an  open  door  Tor  his  possibilities. 

It  is  often  affirmed  in  the  South  that  "this  is  a  white 
man's  country."  This  is  freely  admitted,  but  it  is  equal- 
ly true  that  it  is  also  the  black  man's  country.  The 
country  belongs  to  every  man  born  on  its  soil,  black 


118  RACE   SEGREGATION. 

or  white.  If  it  is  the  white  man's  country  in  any  su- 
preme or  particular  sense,  it  furnishes  an  important 
reason  why  he  should  be  just  and  humane  to  all,  most 
especially  to  under-graduates  in  civil  life. 

It  may  be  argued  that  many  Southern  people  will 
oppose  the  separation  of  the  races  upon  the  ground 
that  such  would  destroy  the  labor  element  of  the  South 
and  thus  retard  expansion  and  progress.  This  may  be 
or  will  be  found  to  be  true  in  some  degree,  but  it  ij> 
becoming  more  and  more  evident  that  negro  labor  is 
growing  less  important  as  a  factor  of  production  in 
the  South.  It  is  not  now  more  than  one-half  of  the 
labor  employed  in  field  and  shop.  A  large  proportion 
of  it  has  gone  North,  East  and  West,  and  is  still  going, 
until  ere  long  the  great  black  belts  of  the  South  must 
be  numbered  with  the  things  of  the  past. 

As  a  laborer  in  the  South,  the  negro  has  been  the 
dearest  and  most  expensive  that  a  country  has  ever 
had  in  the  history  of  nations.  The  Southern  people 
have  already  paid  an  enormous  price  for  the  negro  as 
a  slave,  and  still  the  astounding  debt  bears  interest, 
compounding  itself  as  the  years  go  by.  Heaps  of 
gold  and  almost  endless  treasure  have  been  paid  for 
his  blood  and  bones  as  a  labor  element.  Brave  sons, 
noble  sires,  and  intrepid  chieftains,  queenly  women, 
with  the  flower  of  the  land  have  been  slain  upon  its 
high  places.  Millions  of  drops  of  blood  have  been 
poured  out  as  a  bloody  libation  at  the  shrine  of  the 
swarthy  Moloch.  And  it  seems  apparent  that  the  un- 
ion of  States  that  has  cost  so  much  will  never  be  one 
with  a  tenacious  integrity  until  black  Ham  and  white 
Japheth  shall  dwell  in  separate  tents. 

In  a  State  to  themselves,  within  the  Federal  Union, 
the  negro  would  become  a  free  and  full-fledged  citizen, 
with  all  the  immunities,  privileges  and  political  rights 
that  belong  to  American  citizens  without  friction,  envy 


RACE    SEGREGATION.  119 

and  jealousies.  Then  the  negro,  as  a  man  and  a  race, 
would  have  a  chance  to  develop  his  mental  powers, 
his  physical  character,  and  his  essential  responsibilities 
as  an  American  citizen.  The  responsibilities  that 
would  come  with  a  degree  of  self-government  would 
inspire,  qualify  and  stimulate  to  supreme  effort  in  life, 
and  thus  help  the  Anglo-Saxon  man  and  brother  to 
carry  his  great  civilization  to  a  higher  plane  and  a 
loftier  altitude  of  ideal  perfection. 

Indeed,  the  Union  of  the  States  will  never  be  fully 
and  perfectly  recemented  with  tenacious  integrity  until 
black  Ham  and  white  Japheth  dwell  together  in  sepa- 
rate tents. 


BURDEN  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM. 


BY  RICHARD  H.  EDMONDS, 
Editor  "Manufacturers'  Record." 


Chief  of  the  burdens  of  the  negro  problem  is  the 
heed  given  to  words  of  exploiters  of  the  negro. 

As  long  as  the  intelligence  of  the  country  fails  to 
dicountenance  the  discussion  of  the  negro  by  profes- 
sional orators,  Chautauqua  or  lyceum  lecturers,  edu- 
cationalists, confirmed  philanthropists  and  designing 
politicians  who  find  therein  more  or  less  personal  prof- 
it, so  long  will  the  difficulties  of  the  problem  persist. 

Could  it  be  left  to  men  of  the  character,  the  stand- 
ing, the  experience,  the  mental  calibre  and  the  com- 
mon sense  of  Stuyvesant  Fish,  of  New  York ;  T.  G. 
Bush,  of  Alabama;  William  A.  Courtenay,  of  South 
Carolina ;  John  L.  Williams,  of  Virginia ;  D.  A.  Tomp- 
kins,  of  North  Carolina;  J.  B.  Killebrew,  of  Tennes- 
see; W.  J.  Northen,  of  Georgia,  and  John  H.  Kirby, 
of  Texas,  the  happy  solution  of  the  problem  could  be 
offered  in  a  trice. 

Fundamentally  it  is,  as  it  has  always  been,  an  eco- 
nomic problem  to  be  dealt  with,  not  in  ignorance, 
prejudice  or  passion,  but  in  knowledge,  wisdom  and 
judgment,  and  in  sober  conviction  of  responsibility  to 
the  White  race  and  to  the  black.  Essentially  there 
should  be  an  attitude  toward  the  negro  no  whit  dif- 
ferent from  that  toward  the  hordes  of  aliens  that  are 
crowding  into  the  country  through  its  eastern  ports. 
The  latter  are  really  the  more  difficult  to  be  handled, 
in  that  they  have  never  had  the  negro's  advantage  of 
(120) 


BURDEN    OF    THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  121 

contact  with  American  whites  of  pure  stock.  Their 
future  as  affecting  for  good  or  ill  the  history  of  this 
land  is  inextricably  involved  with  the  future  of  the 
negro  as  he  shall  be  hampered  or  helped. 

As  the  negro  is  mistreated  or  is  unimpeded  in  work- 
ing out  his  own  career,  the  menace  in  foreign  fugi- 
tives from  oppression  or  poverty  will  wax  or  wane.  To 
the  extent  that  the  South  shall  be  relieved  from  the 
unnecessary  embarrassments  in  negro  development, 
to  that  extent  will  the  South  be  free  to  aid  more  un- 
fortunate parts  of  the  country  solving  their  more  pon  - 
derous  problems. 

Alternatives  proposed  as  solutions  of  the  negro 
problem  are  amalgamation,  annihilation,  deportation, 
Each  means  mistreatment  of  the  negro ;  each  is  im- 
practicable. 

Deportation  was  tried  forty  years  ago  under  condi- 
tions where  alone  it  could  approach  possibility.  At 
the  instigation  of  Abraham  Lincoln  attempt  was  made 
to  supplement  emancipation  with  exodus,  under  gov- 
ernment auspices.  It  failed  signally  in  an  odor  of 
graft.  Of  the  hundred  thousand  dollars  available  for 
the  experiment,  the  account  rendered  of  two  or  three 
years'  expenditures  was  for  about  thirty-three  thou- 
.sand  dollars,  the  bulk  of  which  had  gone  to  agents, 
with  a  government  vessel  sent  to  bring  back  a  hand- 
ful of  colonists  who  had  been  induced  to  go  to  another 
land.  If  the  plan  could  not  but  fail  for  four  million 
negroes  with  Lincoln  as  a  leading  promoter,  at  a  time 
when  the  Constitution  of  the  country  was  in  abeyance, 
why  should  sanity  consider  it  to-day  when  more  than 
eight  million  negroes  are  to  be  taken  into  account,  in 
addition  to  the  whites  or  the  whole  country  ? 

The  negro  is  doing  too  much  for  the  prosperity  of 
the  country  for  him  to  desire  to  leave  it  or  for  the 


122  BURDEN    OF    THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

whites  to  give  encouragement  to  anybody  who  would 
force  or  persuade  him  to  leave. 

Amalgamation  has  within  itself  the  elements  of  its 
own  destruction.  Miscegenation  carries  with  it  its 
own  punishment.  Its  effects  are  reducing  to  the  min- 
imum the  number  of  whites  and  blacks  who  will  sub- 
mit to  it. 

Some  of  the  members  of  that  race,  seething  with  the 
passions  in  which  they  were  begotten,  are  openly  or 
covertly  leading  a  few  negroes  to  inevitable  ruin  with 
themselves.  Extremists  among  the  amalgamates  may 
in  the  course  of  time  subject  themselves  to  deportation 
to  penal  settlements  or  to  more  speedy  ends  at  the 
hands  of  the  law  or  outside  the  law,  while  a  rapidly 
growing  sentiment  in  favor  of  a  humane  surgical  op- 
eration, to  be  added  to  the  punishment  of  the  peni- 
tentiary, will,  to  a  certain  degree,  annihilate  a  part  of 
the  negro  stock  by  making  it  incapable  of  propagation. 
This,  enforced  as  to  criminal  whites  as  well  as  to  crim- 
inal negroes,  would  not  only  have  a  deterrent  influ- 
ence to  prevent  crime,  but  it  would  gradually  lessen 
the  reproduction  of  criminals.  But  it  is  puerile  and 
cowardly  to  talk  of  annihilating  a  people  who,  inter- 
rupted by  force,  and  practically  without  action  on  their 
own  part,  in  their  reasonable,  healthy  development 
forty  years  ago,  and  since  then  the  victims  of  experi- 
ments that  would  have  crippled  forever  almost  any 
race,  have  more  than  doubled  in  number  and  still  dis- 
play traces  of  the  excellent  education  of  their  race 
made  possible  in  the  change  from  slavery  in  Africa  to 
bondage  in  America. 

A  suggestion  of  comparatively  recent  publicity  is 
that  negro  vexations  be  overcome  by  opening  the 
gates  to  Mongolian  labor.  There  is  a  charm  about 
that  for  the  economic  politician,  in  that  the  element 
in  American  politics  that  is  largely  responsible  for  the 


BURDEN    OP    THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.!  123 

ills  of  the  negro,  created  in  the  use  of  him  as  a  polit- 
ical issue  to  crystalize  the  low  order  intellect  of  voters 
in  close  elections,  is  most  strenuous  for  Chinese  ex- 
clusion. That  element  may  be  gagged  against  negr<> 
agitation  by  the  threat  of  Chinese  agitation.  But  that 
would  be  politics;  and  there  has  been  already  too 
much  politics  about  the  negro.  Statesmanship  is  de- 
manded, and  statesmanship  will  not  jump,  from  the 
frying  pan  into  the  fire. 

Statesmanship  sees  a  solution  of  the  negro  problem 
in  removing  the  obstacles  from  the  way  of  the  devel- 
opment of  the  negro's  aptitude,  and  in  encouraging 
him  in  cultivation  of  those  habits  which  have  become 
second  nature  with  the  white  race  for  its  advancement. 

Such  a  policy  recognizes  these  facts  emphasized  by 
the  experience  of  the  past  forty  years. 

The  negro  race  is  not  the  Caucasian  race  merely 
colored  black. 

The  negro  race,  mentally  and  morally,  is  centuries 
behind  the  Caucasian  and  has  never  given  evidence 
of  ability  to  advance  in  that  respect  of  its  own  initia- 
tive. 

Crossed  upon  white  stock  the  negro  is  given  great- 
er mental  strength,  but  a  strength  likely  to  be  exerted 
in  manifestation  of  the  vices  rather  than  of  the  virtues 
of  the  original  stocks. 

The  negro  race,  physically,  is  a  powerful  race,  and 
fit  to  work  under  proper  guidance. 

To  seek  to  give  the  negro  child,  but  three  centuries 
removed  from  the  jungle,  the  start  in  schooling  similar 
to  that  given  the  white  child,  with  a  thousand  years  of 
the  education  of  individual  effort  behind  it,  was  worse 
than  foolhardy.  It  was  not  unlike  placing  a  loaded 
magazine  rifle  in  the  arms  of  a  chimpanzee. 

To  give  the  negro  male  the  ballot,  a  privilege  won 
by  the  white  man  in  centuries  of  struggle  and,  after 


124  BURDEN   OF   THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

all,  not  always  exercised  in  a  manner  justifying  his  vic- 
tory, was  worse  than  criminal.  It  was  not  unlike  pois- 
oning a  stream  at  its  very  source. 

Like  education  for  whites  and  blacks,  education 
without  distinction  of  race,  are  the  baneful  theories 
which,  applied  for  nearly  two  generations,  have  not 
only  injured  the  negro  in  weaning  him  from  incentives 
to  productive  and  beneficial  exertions  into  sloth,  vice 
and  crime,  but  have  even  twisted  the  training  of  whites 
upon  right  lines.  In  forcing  the  suffrage  upon  the  ne- 
gro there  was  injected  into  the  whole  body  politic  a 
virus  of  corruption  in  party  practices  and  in  municipal, 
State  and  national  administrations  flatly  disproving 
much  of  the  theory  of  public  education. 

It  is  but  a  step  from  mendicant  methods  in  negro 
education  to  mendicant  methods  in  white  education. 
Such  pauperization  is  but  the  fertilization  of  the  soil 
of  graft  in  quarters  high  and  low.  So,  the  negro  prob- 
lem belongs  to  us  all.  The  intelligence  and  patriotism 
•of  the  whole  country  must  combine  for  its  solution, 
in  permitting  the  South,  most  affected  by  it  at  present, 
to  determine  the  way  and  supply  the  means.  Broad, 
well-defined  principles  must  guide  us. 

Efforts  to  educate  the  rising  generation  of  negroes 
must  recognize,  for  avoidance,  the  mistakes  of  the 
past  manifested  by  negro  youth  of  to-day.  Expendi- 
tures of  time,  energy  and  money  must  be  per  capacity 
of  the  negro  instead  of  per  capita. 

Negroes  who  have  been  miseducated  must  be 
brought  back  to  the  proper  starting  point  before  it  is 
too  late.  They  must  not  only  be  allowed  in  other  parts 
of  the  country  the  opportunities  to  work  enjoyed  by 
them  in  the  South,  but  they  must  be  sharply  taught 
that  unless  they  work  they  will  starve.  The  machin- 
ery for  such  instruction  is  to  be  had  in  a  stringent  va- 
grancy law,  enforced  completely  by  an  effective  rural 


BURDEN  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM.     125 

police  or  patrol,  with  provision  that  individuals  who 
will  not  work  for  themselves  and  for  others  shall  be 
forced  to  work  for  the  State  in  fields  not  conflicting 
with  honest  labor. 

The  way  must  be  kept  open  for  the  natural  diffu- 
sion of  the  negroes  among  the  white  population  until 
they  become  an  element  inconsequential  from  the  so- 
cial, political  or  any  other  standpoint.  At  present 
there  is  one  negro  for  every  8.6  of  the  total  population 
of  the  country.  That  ratio  would  be  a  safe  one  if  it 
was  common  to  all  parts  of  the  country.  But  it  is 
not.  In  the  South  there  is  one  negro  for  every 
three  of  the  population,  the  ratio  ranging  from  one 
in  twenty^two  in  West  Virginia  to  I  in  1.7  in  Missis- 
sippi and  South  Carolina.  At  the  same  time  in  the 
fifteen  States  east  of  the  Mississippi  and  north  of  the 
Ohio  and  Mason  and  Dixon  line,  the  proportion  is  I 
negro  for  every  55.2  of  the  population,  the  range 
being  from  i  in  6  in  Deleware  to  i  in  621  in  New 
Hampshire.  In  the  eleven  mountain  and  Pacific 
states  the  proportion  is  i  in  163,  and  in  9  other  States 
and  territories  it  is  i  in  36. 

As  long  as  any  distinct  race  is  massed  in  one  sec- 
tion of  the  country,  so  long  will  that  race  be  hampered 
and  so  long  will  it  be  a  drag  upon  the  whole  country. 

The  politician,  the  sensation  monger  or  any  other 
individual  in  any  part  of  the  country  who,  in  using 
the  negro  for  every  other  purpose  but  the  negro's 
good,  retards  the  natural  diffusion  of  the  negro  re- 
vealed in  the  fact  that  near  1,000,000  negroes  are  now 
living  outside  the  South  in  a  total  of  8,834,000,  is  an 
enemy  to  his  country  and  must  be  suppressed.  Those 
who  would  suppress  him  have  only  to  bear  in  mind 
the  significant 'fact  that  the  race  question  is  invariably 
brought  to  the  front  when  the  leading  political  parties 
of  the  country  lack  the  courage  to  formulate  and  sup- 


126  BURDEN    OF    THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM. 

port  policies  appealing  to  the  intelligence  of  the  peo- 
ple, or  when  the  movement  carrying  more  negroes  te 
other  parts  of  the  country  and  more  whites  to  the 
South  is  most  pronounced. 

Of  all  persons,  Southern  men  should  have  no  part 
in  giving  life  to  negro  agitation.  The  negro  is  in 
this  country  for  good.  We  must  meet  this  situation 
not  with  impracticable  theories,  supported  by  over- 
drawn pictures  of  danger  from  his  presence.  No 
reasonable  man  could,  with  prophetic  sight,  have 
viewed  the  influences  exerted  upon  negroes  for  forty 
years  without  expecting  even  more  trouble  than  we 
have  had.  Suddenly  freed  from  the  restraining  power 
which  had  controlled  and  civilized  them,  taught  by 
the  most  unscrupulous  white  scoundrels  that  ever 
^cursed  a  land,  as  well  as  by  misguided  philanthropists 
from  other  sections,  that  they  must  demand  social 
equality,  who  could  expect  aught  but  a  generation  of 
-criminal  instincts.  But  this  criminality  is  less  than 
might  have  been  anticipated.  Upon  the  white  people 
-of  the  South  rests  the  responsibility  of  being  permit- 
ted to  deal  with  infinite  patience  with  a  race,  millions 
of  which  have  proved  that  they\could  be  honest,  vir- 
tuous, hard  working  and  faithful  to  every  trust.  The 
•demons  in  human  shape  whose  horrible  acts  are  fol- 
lowed by  swift  punishment,  which,  however  severe, 
can  never  be  severe  enough  to  atone  for  the  crime, 
.should  not  arouse  resentment  against  the  whole  race. 
The  mad  dog  is  a  terror,  but  the  fact  that  some  dogs 
go  mad  is  never  taken  as  a  sufficient  reason  for  driv- 
ing every  dog  out  of  the  country. 

The  negro  is  with  us,  and  he  is  going  to  stay  with 
us.  How  shall  we  get  the  best  for  him  and  for  our- 
selves out  of  the  situation?  Not  by  deportation,  not 
by  amalgamation,  but  by  the  same  tireless  work  which 
the  South  has  for  forty  years  given  to  this  question, 


BURDEN    OF    THE    NEGRO    PROBLEM.  127 

freed,  however,  from  the  visionary  theories  of  outsid- 
ers, who  know  nothing  about  the  conditions  in  the 
South,  and  the  equally  visionary  theories  of  imprac- 
ticable Southern  men.  With  the  marked  increase  of 
white  immigration  to  the  South  now  under  way,  the 
tendency  of  the  negroes  to  dispersion  throughout  the 
country,  the  enactment  and  enforcement  of  vagrancy 
laws,  the  establishment  of  country  patrol  systems,  and 
the  gradual  elimination  of 'the  criminal  classes  in  re- 
production, the  negro  question  will  no  longer  afford 
profitable  employment  for  public  speakers  and  maga- 
zine writers. 


A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO   PROBLEM  PSY- 
CHOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 


BY  WILLIS  B.  PARKS,  M.D. 


In  this  treatise  it  is  proposed  to  present  the  negro 
problem  in  its  various  aspects,  on  a  different  basis  and 
from  a  different  standpoint  from  that  which  it  has 
hitherto  been  treated.  It  will  be  shown  that  the  ex- 
isting conditions  are  the  logical  and  unfailing  conse- 
quence of  cause  and  effect.  This  question  is  by  no 
means  local  or  sectional,  but  is  universal  in  its  scope 
and  application.  It  is,  therefore,  not  a  Southern  prob- 
lem that  we  are  dealing  with,  but  a  national  one,  far- 
reaching  and  vast. 

The  most  important  part  of  man  is  mind,  and,  there- 
fore, any  treatment  of  the  negro  problem  that  ignores 
that  faculty,  is  lacking  from  a  philosophical  viewpoint. 
Hudson  truly  says,  "The  laws  of  suggestion  are  the 
most  important  factor  of  man's  make-up."  Hence  it 
is  to  that  faculty  that  a  scientific  inquiry  must  address 
itself.  In  using  the  expression  "suggestion,"  it  is  not 
the  intention  to  mystify,  but  rather  to  simplify.  It  is 
obvious  that  there  are  several  kinds  of  suggestions, 
and  that  they  are  different  in  their  manifestations,  but 
from  whatever  source  they  emanate,  they  are  subject 
to  the  same  fixed  laws.  We  recognize  direct  as  well 
as  indirect  suggestions,  and  suggestions  may  be  con- 
scious and  unconscious. 

To  illustrate :  When  the  negro  was  freed  and  given 
the  right  of  suffrage,  he  was  given  the  indirect  sug- 

(128) 


A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM.  129 

gestion  of  social  equality ;  to  receive  him  into  the  fam- 
ily and  give  him  the  best  room  in  the  house,  would  be 
a  direct  suggestion  of  social  equality.  To  give  the 
negro  advantages  of  education  and  then  not  to  find  a 
niche  to  fit  him  in  after  life,  is  also  to  give  him  the 
suggestion  of  equality,  but,  at  the  same  time,  to  pre- 
pare him  for  ultimate  and  grievous  disappointment. 

In  the  light  of  the  above  illustrations,  the  term 
Auto-Suggestion  might  also  be  understood.  The  old 
slave  negro  had  the  idea  of  slavery  so  indelibly  im- 
pressed upon  him,  that  nothing  else  suggested  itself, 
from  this  view-point,  to  him,  and  so,  even  after  he 
had  been  freed,  the  before-the-war  negro  acts  now  and 
talks  like  a  slave,  and  is  most  comfortable  in  that  con- 
dition. 

Another  very  important  point,  with  reference  to 
suggestion,  is  to  be  observed,  namely,  that  it  can  be 
both  given  and  received  unconsciously.  Moreover,  it 
may  be  given  consciously  and  received  unconsciously. 

Finally,  it  should  be  understood  that  suggestif/n, 
when  directly  received  or  when  suddenly  aroused  to 
new  life  and  called  into  activity  after  existing  long  in 
a  dormant  state,  is  not  a  weakling  attribute  of  man's 
nature.  It  becomes  a  power,  moving  with  resistless 
force  and  dominating  the  will  with  such  energy  as  to 
sometimes  override  every  opposing  influence,  trans- 
form the  being  and  strike  down  all  opposition  to  his 
sway. 

What  better  illustration  than  the  mob?  Here  we 
see  suggestion  playing  upon  the  passions  of  men,  un- 
til reason  becomes  dethroned,  for  the  once  peaceable, 
quiet  and  law-respecting  citizens  become  a  maddened 
mass  of  death-dealing  animals.  Men  who  would  not 
only  scorn  to  strike  a  foe  when  he  is  down,  but  who 
would  succor  the  imperiled  even  at  the  risk  of  life  it- 
self, become  forgetful  of  every  rational  influence,  and 

9  ns 


130         A  SOLUTION'  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM. 

join  in  the  taking  of  the  life  of  a  helpless  human  bo- 
ing. 

And  this  is  a  fair  illustration.  The  thought  of  sum- 
mary punishment  may  have  originated  in  a  single 
mind — auto-suggestive — but  how  quickly  suggestion, 
conscious,  direct,  is  imparted  from  the  lips  or  by  a 
flash  of  the  eyes,  or  by  a  gesture  from  one  to  another, 
until,  in  a  trice,  the  first  mutterings  of  the  storm  hav< 
gathered  such  force  that  it  has  become  a  whirling, 
seething  cyclone  of  wrath,  and  impaled  within  the 
vortex  of  its  fury,  writhes  the  doomed  victim. 

Let  it  be  at  last  remembered,  that  the  negro  was 
brought  here  in  a  state  of  savagery  and  ignorance  and 
subjected  to  the  suggestions,  conscious  and  uncon- 
scious, of  a  highly  organized  civilization.  It  is  with 
these  things  in  view  that  we  propose  to  treat  this  sub- 
ject, under  the  following  heads :  The  Semi-Savage 
Negro ;  The  Slave  Negro ;  The  Ex-Slave  Negro ; 
The  New  Negro. 

THE  SEMI-SAVAGE  NEGRO. 

Historically,  about  290  years  ago  the  negro  was 
brought  from  Africa  in  a  semi-savage  condition  to  the 
United  States.  The  object  being  not  to  civilize  him, 
but  to  enslave  him.  It  was  purely  from  mercenary 
motives,  and  not  on  account  of  a  desire  to  elevate  him 
from  a  barbaric  state  and  civilize  and  enlighten  and 
Christianize  him. 

At  first,  the  negro  did  not  prove  profitable  in  the 
hands  of  his  masters.  The  cold  climate  of  the  North- 
ern States  of  the  Union,  where  he  was  first  domiciled, 
was  too  rigorous  for  the  thin-skinned  Africans,  and 
the  great  majority  of  them  were  later  transferred  to 
Southern  territory,  where  not  only  the  climate  suited 
them  the  best,  but  they  were  best  adapted  to  the  field 
culture  of  the  section. 


A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM.  131 

Thus  the  new  importation  proved  valueless  to  the 
original  importers,  except  as  a  speculative  commodity. 
But  in  his  new  hbme  he  rapidly  became  domesticated, 
and  the  imitative  being  a  strong  faculty  of  his  nature, 
he  was  enabled  soon  to  adapt  himself  to  his  surround- 
ings, and  he  proved  a  ready  learner  to  do  work  of  a 
more  or  less  simple  character.  Indeed,  his  progress 
was  more  rapid  along  this  line  than  was  his  mental 
development;  hence,  the  negro  was  a  first-rate  field 
hand  before  his  jargon  became  barely  intelligible. 
And,  as  an  illustration  of  the  tardiness  of  the  negro  as 
a  linguist,  it  is  only  necessary  to  refer  to  the  low- 
country  negro  (as  the  Southern  people  term  him)  on 
the  rice  plantations  of  the  South,  and  along  the  whole 
south  coasts.  Their  feeble  vocabulary  of  English  is 
so  interspersed  with  their  own  peculiar  jargon,  half 
English  and  half  barbaric,  as  to  render  it  unintelligi- 
ble, except  to  one  long  used  to  hearing  it. 

It  is  this  creature,  in  his  new  surroundings ;  simple, 
pliable  and  peculiarly  susceptible  to  whatever  influ- 
fluences  that  are  brought  to  bear  upon  his  untutored 
mind,  that  we  shall  undertake  to  deal  with,  from  a 
psychological  view-point. 

According  to  Hudson,  a  recognized  authority  upon 
psychology,  every  human  being  is  endowed  with  a 
dual  mind;  the  objective,  or  the  reasoning  mind  is 
'"controlled  by  the  five  senses  (seeing,  hearing,  feel- 
ing, etc.);  it  is  the  outgrowth  of  man's  physical  ne- 
cessities. It  is  his  guide  in  his  struggles  with  mate- 
rial environment.  Its  highest  function  is  that  of  rea- 
soning." 

"The  Subjective  takes  cognizance,"  says  the  same 
authority,  "of  its  environments  by  means  independent 
of  the  five  physical  senses.  It  perceives  by  intuition. 
It  is  the  seat  of  the  emotions,  and  the  storehouse  of 
memory,  etc."  This  duality  of  the  mind  renders  man 


132    A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM. 

susceptible  to  all  kinds  of  suggestions  known  to  the 
realms  of  psychology.  Boris  Sidis  says,  "The  soil 
favorable  for  the  seeds  of  suggestion  exists  in  all  indi- 
viduals. The  suggestible  element  is  a  constituent  of 
our  nature — it  never  leaves  us." 

The  following  will  illustrate  the  manner  in  which 
suggestion  is  received  by  the  subjective  mind  in  a 
normal,  or  waking,  state.  Before,  or  when  such  sug- 
gestion finds  lodgment,  the  ideas  and  beliefs  existing, 
that  have  come  through  the  objective  mind,  and  that 
are  antagonistic  to  such  suggestion,  must  be  over- 
come. If  the  subject  be  in  a  hypnotic  state  the  objec- 
tive mind  is  passive,  and  the  suggestion  is  imparted, 
direct,  to  the  subjective,  without  having  to  overcome 
the  objective  mind,  i.  e.,  the  auto-suggestion  that  al- 
ready exists.  And  as  it  is  while  in  the  normal  or  wak- 
ing state  of  the  negro,  only,  that  we  propose  to  deal 
with  the  subject,  the  sleeping  or  hypnotic  side  of  psy- 
chology or  suggestion  will  receive  no  further  consid- 
eration. 

THE  SLAVE  NEGRO. 

With  the  advancement  of  the  slavery  period  the 
negro  progressed  even  more  rapidly  than  might  have 
been  expected  along  many  lines.  He  became  more 
and  more  desirable  as  a  servant,  and,  correspondingly, 
his  money  value  was  enhanced.  He  was,  as  a  rule, 
the  recipient  of  humane  treatment ;  his  food  was  plen- 
tiful and  wholesome,  his  clothing  comfortable,  and 
when  sick  he  was  provided  with  the  best  medical 
treatment.  His  money  value  demanded  all  this,  even 
if  the  demand  came  from  no  higher  or  more  humane 
motives.  But  soon  there  did  arise  a  bond  of  sympa- 
thy between  master  and  slave — call  it  affection  if  you 
please —  that  widened  and  deepened  as  the  years 
passed ;  and  this  bond,  so  subtle  as  to  elude  the  grasp 
of  poet  and  philosopher  alike,  who  would  portray  its 


A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM.     133 

character,  survived,  even  after  the  slave  became  a 
freedman,  and  although  suggestion,  of  a  baleful  and 
poisonous  character,  promptly  followed  the  emanci- 
pation of  the  slaves,  uprooting  and  destroying  much 
of  that  feeling  existing  between  the  races,  yet  it  still 
lingers  in  the  breasts  of  many  of  the  ex-slaves  of  to- 
day, and,  certainly,  there  is  a  feeling  of  tender  regard 
in  the  hearts  of  their  former  masters  for  those  who 
were  once  their  slaves. 

During  the  existence  of  slavery  the  surroundings, 
the  occupation,  the  every  environment  of  the  negro 
.strengthened,  each  day,  the  first  and  only  conscious 
.suggestion  of  the  relation  of  the  races,  the  one 
toward  the  other,  in  the  mind  of  the  negro — 
that  of  master  and  slave.  There  was  a  gulf,  deep  and 
impassable,  fixed  by  the  laws  of  nature,  and  illustrated 
in  the  color  of  the  skin  of  each  race,  that  separated 
them  as  completely  and  effectually,  socially,  as  if  the 
breadth  of  a  continent  lay  between. 

The  slave  negro  realized  this,  accepted  it,  and  lived 
up  to  the  conditions.  And,  even  after  the  President  of 
the  United  States  in  1863  had  issued  his  emancipation 
proclamation,  and  all  the  world  waited  in  breathless 
expectancy  for  the  blow,  so  strongly  suggested  in  that 
document,  to  fall,  that  would  inaugurate  a  reign  of 
bloodshed,  butchery  and  rapine  all  over  the  South,  the 
terrors  of  which  men  could  not  conceive  of,  this  prin- 
ciple, so  well  grounded  by  suggestion  in  the  con- 
science of  these  slaves,  stayed  the  hand,  and  palsied 
the  arm  of  any  that  might  have  contemplated  the 
dreadful  uprising,  and,  in  the  hands  of  the  black  man, 
the  lives  and  homes  of  the  women  and  children,  whose 
slave  he  was,  were  a  sacred  charge,  and  not  an  act  of 
lawlessness  mars  the  black  man's  history  during  that 
dark  period.  What  an  illustration  of  right  sugges- 
tion! 


134    A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM. 

And  who  shall  say  that,  left  to  themselves,  unin- 
fluenced by  conscious  counter  suggestions  coming 
from  designing  and  insincere  persons,  whose  sole  ob- 
ject was  personal  gain  and  political  preference,  the 
conditions  of  to-day  would  have  been  the  same?  But 
the  fire  once  ignited,  conditions  were  such  as  to  fan 
the  flame  into  intense  heat  at  once,  and  suggestions, 
oftentime  unconsciously  received,  perhaps,  which,  like 
the  deadly  microbe  that  lays  dormant  in  the  humaa 
system  until  aroused  to  action  by  influences  favorable 
to  its  ravages,  became  dominating  influences  in  the 
mind  of  the  negro,  transforming  him  into  a  being  full 
of  suspicion,  mistrust  and,  sometimes,  hatred  against 
the  former  trusted  and  respected  master. 

As  before  stated,  the  negro  during  his  slave  period 
was  trustworthy  and  loyal  to  his  master  and  his  mas- 
ter's interests,  and  while  it  is  claimed  that  he  had 
great  thieving  proclivities,  yet  they  usuallv  pertained 
to  something  trivial ;  he  would  naturally  say  to  him- 
self: "Master's  nigger  and  master's  taters."  Such 
privileges  of  taking  something  to  eat  could  hardly  be 
regarded  in  a  strict  sense  as  theft.  This  hereditary 
trait,  born  so  innocently  in  slavery,  might  account  for 
his  great  tendency  to  steal  after  slavery.  For,  how 
often  the  claim :  "We  worked  and  made  it ;  it's  as 
much  ours  as  anybody's  else !"  A  kind  of  community 
of  interests  feeling. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  crime  of  rape  was  not 
heard  of  during  slave-days,  and  many  reasons  have 
been  offered  to  explain  why  this  was,  especially  during 
and  about  the  close  of  the  Civil  War  when  most  of  the 
white  men  were  away,  and  the  white  women  and  chil- 
dren were  left  to  the  mercy  of  the  negro.  And  even- 
after  he  well  knew  that  he  would  soon  be  set  free,  he 
still  remained  true  to  his  trust,  and  was  ready  to  de- 


A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM.     135 

fend,  even  at  the  cost  of  his  life,  the  women  and  chil- 
dren left  to  his  care. 

It  would  not  be  amiss  to  say  that  the  South  should, 
as  a  fitting  mark  of  gratitude  and  respect,  erect  a 
monument  to  the  memory  of  the  slave  who  was  true 
and  loyal  to  his  invaluable  trust. 

THE  EX-SLAVE  NEGRO. 

The  influences  must,  indeed,  have  been  strong  that 
could  transform  the  faithful  and  loyal  slave  of  yester- 
day into  the  unfriendly,  sullen  and  vindictive  freed- 
man  of  to-day.  But  such  was  the  transformation. 
But  while  he  hailed  the  announcement  of  liberation 
from  bondage  with  outward  demonstrations  of  joy,  it 
is  an  undisputed  fact  that  many  of  the  race  accepted 
the  change  of  condition  with  some  misgivings  and 
fear,  lest  after  all,  the  blessings  of  freedom  might  prove 
a  curse  in  disguise.  And  it  is  well  known  that  many 
did  linger  upon  the  old  plantation,  accepting  such 
terms  and  upon  such  conditions  as  their  former  own- 
ers, in  their  impoverished  state,  could  offer  them ; 
some  of  them  never  leaving,  but  being  borne  from 
their  old  cabin  homes  to  the  grave-yard  on  the  hill 
hard  by,  where  their  ashes  rest  under  the  sod  their  feet 
in  life  had  pressed. 

Whether  the  negro,  left  free  from  extraneous  influ- 
ences, could  have  realized  the  truth  so  forcibly  ut- 
tered recently  by  a  negro  orator  from  Yale,  that  ''free- 
dom is  a  process,  and  no  man  can  be  free  until  he  has 
established  for  himself  a  character,"  is  a  question ;  but 
certain  it  is,  that,  without  character  or  preparation 
this  race  was  called  upon  to  assume  the  role  of  a  free 
man  not  only  unprepared,  but  hedged  about  with  ev- 
ery hindrance  that  could  arise  from  innumerable  ad- 
verse suggestions. 


136    A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM. 

It  is  a  well  established  scientific  fact  that  those  used 
to  rendering  obedience  are  the  most  susceptible  to 
suggestion,  both  conscious  and  unconscious ;  hence, 
we  have  in  the  freedman  a  shining  mark  for  a  design- 
ing, mischief-making  element,  and  how  thoroughly 
and  effectively  the  work  was  done,  the  conditions  of 
to-day  attest.  And  it  may  be  as  well  understood  now 
that  we  claim  that  to  these  agencies  of  discord,  more 
than  to  all  else,  is  due  the  deplorable  position  which 
this  race  occupies  before  the  world  to-day.  Left  to 
himself,  the  freedman  was  not  a  vicious  person.  There 
was  nothing  of  malice  in  his  nature  toward  the  white 
race.  But  he  was  a  creature  easily  duped,  and  his 
simple,  untutored  mind  was  a  fertile  soil  for  the  re- 
ception of  the  seeds  of  wrong  suggestion,  and  the 
ground  was  well  sown.  And  how  subtly  were  they 
sown!  And  how  promptly  did  the  tillers  of  this  soil 
begin  their  work !  Simultaneous  with  the  home-com- 
ing of  the  remnants  of  Lee's  and  Johnson's  armies 
was  the  arrival  of  these  alien  agitators.  It  is  a  matter 
of  history,  and,  therefore,  it  is  not  necessary  to  quib- 
ble at  this  point,  lest  we  display  a  sectional  feeling, 
the  South  was  absolutely  overrun  by  designing  poli- 
ticians, over  zealous  and  misguided  philanthropists, 
and  a  horde  of  fortune  hunters.  And  as  we  shall  in- 
sist that,  to  the  baleful  suggestions  received  by  the 
freedman,  direct  and  indirect,  intentionally  given 
sometimes,  and  unintentionally  at  others,  but  always 
hurtful,  is  traceable,  to  a  very  large  extent,  the  pres- 
ent unhappy  state  of  the  negro  race,  it  is  well  to  make 
our  position  plain. 

The  first  suggestions  the  ex-slave  received  were  of 
a  material  character.  They  were  told  that  their  labors 
had  accumulated  the  wealth  of  the  South  prior  to  the 
v/ar.  What  was  left  after  the  war  was  theirs,  by  right 
of  conquest  of  the  Union  arms,  and  that  the  govern- 


A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM.     137 

ment  would  apportion  it  to  them  under  a  rule  some- 
thing like  this :  As  one  is  to  forty  acres  and  a  mule, 
so  is  the  whole  number  to  everything  left.  It  was  an 
adroit  piece  of  calculation,  and  if  the  entire  wealth  of 
the  country  had  been  summed  up  at  that  time  and  ap- 
portioned according  to  the  above  calculation,  the  title 
to  the  bulk  of  the  assets  of  the  South  would  have  been 
vested  in  the  negro,  however  surprising  this  may  have 
been  to  the  inventor  of  the  4O-acres-and-a-mule  prop- 
osition. And  this  feeling  of  ownership  was  never 
eradicated ;  and  if  the  negro  has  gained  an  unenvia- 
ble reputation  as  a  purloiner  and  a  thief,  it  is  but  fair 
to  say  that,  paradoxical  as  it  may  sound,  he  was  and 
is,  to  a  great  extent,  honestly  so.  It  is  well  known 
that  the  Southern  penitentiaries  and  chaingangs  rap- 
idly filled  up  just  after  the  war  between  the  States, 
and  the  inmates  were  largely  negroes ;  and  the  records 
show  that  a  large  percentage  of  these  were  sent  up  for 
horse-stealing.  Indeed,  it  became  almost  a  mania 
among  the  race.  Had  the  4O-acre-and-a-mule  fallacy 
proven  an  indirect  suggestion? 

Along  political  lines  was  another  avenue  through 
which  suggestion  found  easy  access  to  the  ex-slave's 
subjective  mind.  He  was  recognized  as  a  full-fledged 
American  citizen.  He  voted,  held  office,  and  was  priv- 
ileged to  have  a  white  man  "  'rested  "  if  he,  the  said 
white  man,  dared  to  molest  him  in  the  exercise  of  any 
of  these  political  rights.  And  this  state  of  being  sug- 
gested to  him  the  displacement  of  white  rule  entirely, 
and  the  usurpation  of  all  authority  of  government — 
indeed,  to  the  mind  of  the  average  negro,  the  South 
was  soon  to  become  the  promised  Canaan  of  the  race, 
owned  and  dominated  by  the  African  contingent  of 
American  citizenship. 

But  the  most  baleful  and  fallacious  of  all  direct  sug- 
gestions that  the  ex-slave  received  about  the  time  of 


138         A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM. 

his  emancipation  was  that  of  social  equality.  We  are 
not  prepared  to  claim  that,  left  to  himself,  the  negro 
would  never  have  entertained  the  thought,  auto-sug- 
gestively.  That  faculty  of  imitation  before  referred 
to  had  enabled  him  to  ape,  in  a  crude  way,  as  a  rule, 
many  of  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  white  folk. 
And  many  of  his  race  had  become  men  and  women  of 
intelligence ;  some  had  received  more  or  less  of  an 
elementary  education,  and  there  were  among  them 
skilled  workmen  in  all  lines  of  mechanics.  So  that 
the  recently  liberated  slave  was  far  removed,  in  every 
respect,  from  his  semi-savage  forefathers. 

Hence,  what  might  have  developed  can  only  be  sur- 
mised. But  the  correction  of  such  suggestions,  if  they 
had  arisen,  would  have  been  an  easy  matter,  with  the 
negro  free  from  the  false,  devilish  and,  to  his  own  bet- 
ter judgment,  untenable  suggestions. 

The  suggestion  of  social  equality  was  received  first 
from  that  same  alien  element  who  went  among  the 
freedmen  immediately  after  the  close  of  the  Civil  War, 
and,  professing  solicitude  for  their  welfare,  undertook 
to  direct  the  recently  liberated  slaves  in  the  setting  in 
order  of  their  social  house.  They  discovered  to  the 
negro  the  fact  that  he  was  "Mister"  So-and-so,  not 
plain  "Dick"  or  "Tom"  of  yesterday.  They  gave 
practical  suggestive  illustration  then  and  there,  bv 
addressing  him  so,  and  sometimes  the  poor  darkey 
was  taken  off  his  feet  by  being  asked  what  his  name 
was,  that  they  might  address  him  properly.  He  would 
blurt  out  some  name  hurriedly  in  his  embarrassment, 
for  he  rarely  ever  assumed  his  late  owner's  name,  to 
find  later  that,  upon  reflection,  the  name  did  not  suit 
the  cut  of  his  jib  and  changed  it,  sometimes  more 
than  once.  They  further  gave  practical  suggestion  of 
equality  by  visiting  the  negroes  in  their  cabins  (gen- 
erally under  cover  of  darkness  for  obvious  reasons), 


A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM.     139 

eating  at  table  with  them,  and  otherwise  recognizing 
these  relations.  They  were  blarnied  and  cajoled  by 
politicians  and  railroaded  into  office  and  given  con- 
stant assurance  of  their  superiority  of  caste. 

All  of  these  had  a  damaging  effect,  and  while  °n 
thousands  of  instances  the  agitator  failed  to  create  a 
very  high  regard  for  himself  in  the  estimation  of  the 
negro,  yet,  the  feeling  of  disgust,  often  engendered, 
did  not  always  afford  counter  suggestion  sufficient  to 
overcome  the  direct ;  for  the  reason,  perhaps  mainly, 
that  the  latter  were  in  comport  with  the  desires  of  the 
freedman. 

Then  there  were  other  conditions  that  proved 
strong  suggestions  to  the  negro's  mind,  of  the  equality 
of  the  races  socially.  The  mulatto  was  a  living  evi- 
dence of  the  maintenance  of  relations  between  the 
races  in  the  past  that  should  never  exist  between  a 
superior  and  an  inferior,  between  master  and  slave. 
And  the  sadness  of  the  picture  is  intensified  in  the  fact 
that  the  white  man  knew  not  how  disastrously  he  was 
sowing  the  seeds  of  depravity,  discord  and  disgrace. 
Sadly  enough,  they  have  had  their  reflex  influence 
upon  the  white  man.  On  account  of  these  degrading 
and  unhallowed  relations  the  negro  race  came  out 
of  bondage,  their  women  under  clouds  of  unchastity, 
and  both  sexes  alike  holding  the  marriage  relation  !n 
light  esteem.  This  was  the  rule ;  of  course,  there  were 
exceptions.  Had  the  negro  slaves  been  trained  along 
lines  of  morality,  chastity  and  right  regard  for  thes-i 
things,  and  had  the  whites  maintained  a  proper  moral 
relation  to  the  blacks,  the  state  of  affairs  above  re- 
ferred to  would  not  have  existed.  To  have  encour- 
aged the  propagation  of  the  species  through  promis- 
cuous relations  of  the  sexes  was  reprehensible,  al- 
though justified  on  the  ground  of  self-interest — every 
piccaninny  represented  so  much  assets  of  an  estate. 


140         A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM. 

And  it  is  well  known  that  healthy  negro  women  were 
in  demand  for  child-bearing. 

And,  while  the  ex-slave  was  slow  in  overt  action 
upon  these  poisonous  suggestions,  they  served  to  ren- 
der him  morose  and  sullen.  He  became  restless,  as 
if  under  a  great  restraint.  He  was  suspicious  of  the 
white  man,  and  incapacitated  to  enter  into  any  busi- 
ness relations  with  his  former  master,  with  that  feel- 
ing of  confidence  and  desire  for  mutual  good  that  is 
50  essential  to  successful  business  intercourse.  The 
suggestions  he  had  received,  both  consciously  and  un- 
consciously, were  to  the  effect  that  whatever  of  profit 
he  proved  to  the  white  man  thereafter,  even  in  mat- 
ters upon  which  his  own  subsistence  depended,  was 
undeserved;  hence,  there  was,  generally  speaking, 
only  a  perfunctory  rendering  of  service. 

But  time  has  righted  many  wrong  suggestions  i«v 
the  case  of  the  ex-slaves,  at  least.  Unfortunately, 
their  descendants  have  profited  little  by  it.  The 
years  of  constant  association  and  business  contact  with 
Southern  white  men  have  brought  about  more  amica- 
ble relations.  Confidence  has  been  restored  in  the 
mind  of  the  ex-slave,  and  there  exists  a  better  under- 
standing. And  few  of  this  class  of  negroes  ever  think 
of,  or  care  for,  closer  social  relations.  And  it  is  not 
this  element  that  is  responsible  for  the  deplorable  state 
of  affairs  existing ;  with  the  ex-slave  only  to  deal  with, 
the  nation  would  have  no  "problem"  for  solution. 

THE  NEW  NEGRO. 

We  have  shown  in  preceding  chapters  some  of  the 
influences  that  surrounded  the  negro  in  slavery,  and 
others  that  quickly  followed  emancipation ;  and,  as 
we  come  to  consider  the  "New  Negro"  of  to-day,  the 
question  arises,  has  the  progress  of  the  race  been 
•commensurate  with  the  opportunities?  Has  the  ad- 


A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM.  141 

vancement  made  during  the  first  forty  years  of  his 
freedom  kept  pace  with  his  development  during  the 
slave  period? 

In  order  to  arrive  at  a  fair  conclusion,  let  us  see 
what  progress  had  been  made  during  the  slave  pe- 
riod. We  have  men  of  the  race  skilled  in  all  lines  of 
mechanics — every  "quarter"  had  its  carpenters,  black- 
smiths, tanners,  harness  and  shoemakers,  coopers, 
wagon-makers,  etc. — and  a  majority  of  these  had  ac- 
quired more  or  less  elementary  learning.  There  were 
preachers,  many  of  whom  could  read  thtir  texts  and 
"line"  the  hymns,  and,  around  every  "big  house"  were 
butlers,  coachmen,  housekeepers,  chambermaids  and 
nurses  who  had,  by  close  contact  with  their  "white 
folks,"  learned  much  of  the  ways  of  the  world  outside 
of  the  slave  domain.  Few,  comparatively,  of  the 
slave  owners  proscribed  education  among  their  slaves, 
and  the  children  of  these  families  were  often  the 
teachers  from  which  their  domestics  and  others  often 
learned  much  that  was  of  incalculable  value  in  the 
years  that  followed.  The  youngsters  or  Miss  of  tender 
years  seated  at  the  nursery  fireside,  or  in  the  play- 
yard  shade,  teaching  a  favorite  servant,  sometimes 
more  than  one,  was  a  familiar  picture  in  slavery  days, 
and  the  heart  of  many  an  old  ex-slave  of  to-day  warms 
up,  and  there  is  seen  a  tender,  far-away  look  of  yearn- 
ing, as  if  he  would  fain  glance  backward  through  tha 
intervening  years  of  the  past  half  century  or  more, 
and  once  more  contemplate  the  scene,  long  ago  en- 
acted, of  young  Marster  or  young  Missus  with  dili- 
gence and  patience  unfolding  to  eager  minds  the  mys- 
teries of  Webster's  "blue  back."  How  vividly  is  re- 
called the  look  of  severity  that  for  an  instant  beclouds 
the  face  of  the  young  teacher,  but  is  soon  chased 
away  by  the  sunshine  of  genuine  interest — aye,  affec- 
tion— for  the  pupil  who  has  failed  to  recite  satisfac- 


142    A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM. 

iorily,  or  did  not  comprehend  readily  enough,  the 
elucidation  of  some  important  lesson  help !  Perhaps 
it  was  that  "K"  might  easily  be  recognized  at  any 
time,  if  the  fact  that  its  back  was  broken  was  kept  m 
mind  by  the  student. 

Young  master's  body-servant  was  another  favored 
slave,  who  profited  much  in  many  ways  by  his  posi- 
tion. Sometimes  he  followed  his  master  into  profes- 
sional life,  and  the  opportunities  for  learning  were  ex- 
ceptional. Indeed,  it  is  safe  to  claim  that  hundreds  of 
the  race  enjoyed  these  and  like  advantages.  One 
thing  we  know :  They  were  not  all  illiterate  when  they 
became  freedmen.  This  is  attested  in  the  fact  that  a1! 
•over  the  South,  when  martial  law  and  bayonet  rule 
essayed  to  fill  many  offices  with  negroes,  there  was  an 
overflow  of  applicants  for  the  "jobs"  to  let.  Within 
a  few  months,  Southern  legislatures  were  overrun  and 
dominated  by  negro  politicians,  courts  were  officered, 
and  in  all  lines  of  public  service  the  negro  was  in 
evidence. 

From  the  semi-savage  to  the  freedman,  then,  we 
find  the  negro  well  on  the  way  to  civilization,  and 
somewhat  enlightened,  though  he  had  been  centuries 
learning  the  lesson. 

Now  the  question  recurs,  what  of  the  progress  since 
emancipation  ? 

In  many  respects  the  record  is  disappointing.  In 
morals  and  in  physical  vigor  the  New  Negro  is  far 
below  the  average  of  the  ex-slave.  And  his  intellect 
does  not  tower  above  that  of  his  progenitors.  True, 
he  has  enjoyed  educational  advantages — opportuni- 
ties is,  perhaps,  a  better  word,  for  the  greater  body 
of  the  negro  race  is,  comparatively,  illiterate,  and  the 
census  showing  along  this  line  is  misleading.  The 
"book-learning"  of  the  freedman  and  his  descendants 
is  of  a  very  shallow  character,  as  applied  to  the  masses. 


A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM.  143 

There  are  a  number  of  reasons  for  this.  Short  school 
terms  in  rural  districts,  the  indisposition  of  the  pa- 
rents to  take  the  children  from  the  fields  during  the 
"cropping  season,"  and  too  many  colleges,  are  some 
of  the  potent  reasons.  The  expenditure  of  vast  sums 
in  educational  channels,  upon  comparatively  few, 
whereas,  if  differently  employed,  the  many  would  have 
received  substantial  profit,  and  all  would  have  been 
benefited  some,  was  a  grave  error.  And  the  sugges- 
tion to  the  race  thereby  was  unfortunate  and  dam- 
aging. 

There  have  been  established  throughout  the  South 
too  many  colleges,  universities  and  other  institutions 
for  the  higher  education  of  the  negro.  There  is  too 
much  of  display  and  glamor  for  the  real  article  in 
learning.  There  are  too  many  negroes  who  have  been 
"thro'  college,"  know  much  that  is  in  books,  and  have 
imbibed  a  smattering  of  polish  that  are  absolutely 
handicapped  on  account  of  the  possession  of  a  diplo- 
ma. Why  ?  The  answer  is  simple :  Auto-suggestion 
stands  as  a  barrier  between  them  and  the  only  pur- 
suits open  to  them.  To  these,  "out  in  service"  is  not 
the  thing.  "It  is  too  menial,"  says  their  auto-sugges- 
tion. "And  this  applies,  in  large  part,  to  those  pa^- 
tially  educated  in  the  higher  branches  of  learning,  as 
well  as  to  the  graduate. 

Writers  and  orators  of  the  race,  as  well  as  others, 
lay  great  stress  upon  what  education  has  done  and  is 
doing  for  the  negro,  but  statistics,  gathered  and  com- 
piled from  all  the  colleges,  show  that  at  the  end  of  a 
generation  of  freedom  only  about  2.300  graduates 
have  gone  out  from  all  the  institutions  of  learning 
open  to  the  race,  including  those  graduated  before 
the  Civil  War,  and  the  tab  kept  upon  the  movements 
of  these  showed  that  little  more  than  half  of  them 
were  reported  to  be  engaged  in  profitable  pursuits. 


144         A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM. 

Fifty-three  per  cent,  of  these  were  engaged  in  teach- 
ing, and  sixteen  per  cent,  were  preachers.  And  this 
is  the  showing  of  a  generation !  This  the  returns  of 
the  millions  that  have  been  given  with  a  free  hand  by 
benevolent  and  philanthropic  people,  individually  and 
organic,  for  the  sole  purpose  of  education.  Add  to 
this  the  national  schools  and  the  school  fund  expended 
annually  by  every  Southern  State  upon  negro  educa- 
tion, and  the  returns  upon  this  fabulous  expenditure 
are  meagre  indeed.  The  beginnings  of  the  second 
generation  found  the  race  in  about  this  condition: 
Two  and  seven-ninths  per  cent,  graduates  of  colleges, 
and  less  than  50  per  cent,  with  any  education  at  ail, 
while  of  this  number  a  small  percentage  only  were 
turning  their  education  to  account  in  their  daily  avo- 
cations. And  many,  as  above  shown,  find  their  learn- 
ing a  drawback  oftener  than  a  help. 

This,  we  admit,  is  an  unfortunate  state  of  affairs 
and  to  be  deplored,  but  by  it,  the  unwisdom  of  the 
plan  of  negro  education  adopted  and  pursued  for  forty 
years  seems  to  be  most  clearly  demonstrated.  To  at- 
tempt to  charge  the  mind  of  the  negro  child,  less  than 
three  centuries  removed  from  the  savage  state,  with 
schooling  such  as  the  white  child  is  given,  with  twenty 
centuries  of  Christian  civilization  and  enlightenment 
behind  it,  supplemented  by  constant  intelligent  indi- 
vidual effort,  was,  palpaMy,  an  impossibility,  and  a 
cruel  exaction  made  upon  a  weakling  intellect;  and 
like  many  other  conditions  existing  in  our  race  rela- 
tions, it  is  without  a  parallel  in  the  history  of  nations. 

Now,  from  these  same  institutions  of  learning  have 
gone  out  some  of  the  most  hurtful  and  deplorable 
suggestions,  as  poisonous  as  they  were  fallacious,  that 
have  been  imparted  to  the  negro  race  through  any 
medium,  and  by  any  agency.  And  they  have  been 
doubly  damaging,  in  that  they  have  begotten  in  a 


A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM.  145 

certain  element  of  the  white  race  counter  suggestions, 
combative  in  their  nature.  When  a  negro  boy  or  girl 
is  taught  to  regard  himself  or  herself  as  the  social 
equal  of  white  children,  when  his  inner  consciousness 
voices  a  counter  suggestion,  based  upon  his  common 
sense,  a  state  of  feeling  is  engendered  in  the  breast  of 
that  pupil  that  is  to  curse  his  or  her  life  for  all  time, 
and  that  will  work  serious  damage  both  to  the  indi- 
vidual and  to  the  body  politic  of  the  race.  Yet  these 
suggestions,  direct  and  indirect,  are  a  part  and  parcel 
of  the  curriculum,  if  not  laid  down  in  the  catalogue, 
well  understood,  of  many  such  institutions ;  more 
prominent  perhaps  in  some  than  in  others.  And,  <t 
seems  that  intelligent  people — white  teachers,  many 
of  them — even  if  no  other  motive  than  a  desire  for  the 
welfare  of  the  pupil  prompted  them,  would  modify 
that  curriculum,  at  least.  They  are  too  intelligent  to 
charge  with  ignorance  in  the  matter.  They  are  not 
blind  to  the  results.  It  is  one  of  the  causes  of  the 
unfitness  of  the  negro  with  an  education,  partial  or 
finished,  for  the  avocations  open  to  his  race.  No  self- 
respecting  Southern  white  man  will  take  a  negro  wo- 
man into  his  home,  give  her  sleeping  quarters  upon 
the  same  floor  with  his  family  and  conform  to  many 
other  conditions  precedent,  as  prescribed  by  some  ot 
these  colleges  which  have  an  employment  bureau  at- 
tachment, and  which  furnish  educated  and  trained 
domestics,  because,  forsooth,  these  conditions  are  de- 
signed as  a  moral  safeguard  for  the  servant.  North- 
ern sojourners  in  the  South  refuse  to  subscribe  to 
such  terms,  and  certainly  Southern  homes  are  not,  as 
a  rule,  so  constructed.  Servants'  quarters  are  so  ar- 
ranged as  to  prevent  social  contact.  There  must  b? 
no  intercourse  except  as  between  employer  and  em- 
ployee— a  superior  and  an  inferior.  Other  women  of 
their  race  fill  such  positions  without  such  "safeguards" 

10  ns 


146         A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM. 

and  maintain  their  respectability,  and  are  the  equals 
of  the  college-bred  domestics,  barring-  education.  But 
the  educated  or  partially  educated  negro  is  but  a  slight 
percentage  and  not,  bv  any  means,  the  most  danger- 
ous element  of  the  race.  He  has  not  heretofore  fig- 
ured much  as  a  law-breaker,  and,  to  be  frank,  he 
stands  in  more  amicable  relations  to  his  white  fellow- 
citizens  than  he  has  aforetime.  There  is  more  evi- 
dence of  a  desire  on  his  part  to  co-operate  in  the  ef- 
forts to  suppress  crime  and  bring  criminals  to  ac- 
count. And  the  time  is  short  before  the  country  will 
realize  marked  results  from  that  co-operation.  The  ex- 
ample of  a  leading  colored  man,  editor  of  a  paper 
published  in  the  interests  of  his  race,  prosecuting1  a 
colored  woman  before  the  courts  in  a  Southern  citv 
for  an  alleged  infraction  of  law,  after  repeated  efforts 
to  restrain  her  had  been  made,  is  an  inspiring  one. 
And  he  is  on  record  as  intending  to  keep  it  up.  I: 
is,  he  claims,  in  the  interest  of  good  morals  among 
the  race. 

But  it  is  more  far-reaching  than  mere  individual 
effort.  Let  the  race — the  vicious  element,  of  course- - 
learn  that  a  few  such  men  of  their  race  in  every  com- 
munity are  on  their  tracks,  and  one  of  the  most  pow- 
erful counter  suggestions  to  lawlessness  and  crime 
would  take  hold  of  the  minds  of  the  lawless  and  the 
restraining  influences  would  be  incalculably  strong. 
Three  determined  and  fearless  leaders  like  this  editor 
would  do  more  toward  putting  a  police  recorder  out 
of  business  than  any  city's  "picked  squad"  of  patrol- 
men. 

So  far,  the  influences  of  suggestion  upon  the  col- 
ored race  has  been  considered  in  a  general  way,  with- 
out regard  to  any  specific  conditions  or  set  of  circum- 
stances. There  is  a  phase  of  the  subject  to  which  we 
now  advert  with  the  hope  and  belief  that,  though  an 


A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM.     147 

oft  threshed  question,  we  shall  be  able  to  present  some 
views  upon  a  line  hitherto  disregarded,  that  may  prove 
helpful  in  future  discussions.  It  is  that  of 

ASSAULT    UPON    WHITE    WOMEN    BY    NEGRO    MEN  ; 
ITS  CAUSES  AND  PROPOSED  RATIONAL  REMEDIES. 

The  fa:t  was  mentiond,  incidentally,  in  a  former 
•connection,  that  the  crime  of  rape  was  seldom  heard 
of  during-  the  slave  period,  and  we  will  here  add  that 
this  is  accounted  for  most  satisfactorily  upon  psycho- 
logical grounds. 

First,  the  "crime  ©f  rape,"  as  used  above,  may  be 
taken  in  a  broader  sense  than  the  subject  under  dis- 
cussion embraces.  Let  it  apply  to  colored  as  well  as 
white  women,  to  facilitate  the  elucidation  of  the  mat- 
ter, and  we  shall  see  that  there  was  an  utter  lack  of 
-suggestion  in,  or  to,  the  negro  man  regarding  the 
crime  against  either  race  of  women,  but  upon  entirely 
different  hypotheses. 

In  the  case  of  negro  women  there  was  absolutely 
no  grounds  for  the  basis  of  wrong  suggestion,  be- 
cause none  of  the  avenues  of  intercourse  between  the 
sexes  were  closed.  While  the  marriage  relations  weri 
entered  into  and  maintained  between  negro  men  and 
negro  women,  these  relations,  on  account  of  prevail- 
ing sentiment  based  upon  customs,  already  referred 
to  as  wrong  and  degrading,  were  not  essential  to  sex- 
ual  intercourse.  Hence,  the  conditions  that  might 
suggest  rape  were  too  remote  to  consider.  The  mind 
of  the  negro  man  was,  therefore,  free  from  improper 
suggestions  as  regards  the  women  of  his  race.  Th«; 
other  feature  of  the  question,  however,  is  as  fraught 
with  suggestion  as  this  is  devoid  of  it. 

The  first  impression  that  found  lodgment  in  the 
mind  of  the  semi-savage  when  his  foot  pressed  Amer- 
ican soil  was  a  conscious  suggestion  of  inferiority. 


148    A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM. 

(This  is  a  conclusion  fully  justified  upon  several 
grounds.  The  fact  that  he  was  a  slave,  descended 
from  the  slave  of  black  masters  is  sufficient  to  citi 
here.)  And,  above  all  else,  the  white  Mistress  of  his 
new  world  was  more  an  ideal  object  of  worship  than 
one  to  desecrate.  And,  as  his  sojourn  lengthened  int  > 
years,  the  queenly  relations  his  white  Mistress  bore  to 
the  home,  as  well  as  to  the  whole  social  fabric,  so  far 
as  his  observation  extended,  fixed  and  strengthened 
this  suggestion  in  his  sub-conscious  mind;  so  that 
the  suggestion  became  a  principle  to  be  transmitted 
in  a  genealogical  sequence,  and,  as  the  centuries 
passed,  it  became  a  bulwark  of  safety  behind  which 
was  sheltered,  unharmed,  white  women  and  children 
during  the  fateful  sixties,  when  true  and  loyal  black 
men  all  over  the  South  not  only  worked  faithfully  for 
their  subsistence,  but  bared  their  own  brawny  arms 
in  defense  of  any  of  their  "white  folk"  when  danger 
was  nigh. 

Fortunate  it  is  for  the  black  man  of  the  slave  period 
that  conditions  were  such  as  to  preclude  the  idea  or 
assumption  that  through  fear  a  brutish  nature  was 
curbed  and  not  because  of  his  devotion  to  right  and 
duty  that  the  white  Mistress  passed  through  the  slave 
period  unassailed.  During  the  Civil  War  the  slaves 
at  home,  as  a  rule,  were  at  all  times  fully  apprised  of 
the  situation.  There  was  (as  a  negro  writer  recently 
expressed  it)  a  "free  masonry"  means  of  communica- 
tion that  kept  them  always  informed. 

Furthermore,  in  view  of  subsequent  history,  are  we 
not  justified  in  claiming  that  the  war-time  darkey — 
the  ex-slave — has  maintained  a  fair  respectability  since 
his  emancipation?  Some  of  their  number  have  gone 
in  forbidden  ways,  and  penitentiaries  have  gathered 
many  within  their  walls  or  on  chaingangs,  but  the 
great  body  of  the  ex-slave  element  presents  a  fair 


A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM.     149 

record  upon  this  question.  In  support  of  this  claim, 
we  cite  the  fact,  which  seems  to  have  escaped  obser- 
vation, that  the  crime  of  rape  does  not  belong-  to  the 
slave  period,  neither  is  it  a  fruit  of  the  ex-slave  period 
proper.  While  there  had  been  a  few  offenses  of  this 
character  before,  the  crime  was  not  so  frequent  as  to 
arouse  comment  or  create  widespread  alarm  and  con- 
sternation until  many  years  after  the  emancipation  of 
slavery.  Therefore,  it  is  fair  and  just  to  claim  that  the 
crime  of  assault  is  the  crime  of  the  "New  Negro" — 
not  of  the  slave  nor  of  the  ex-slave. 

The  grounds  upon  which  we  base  the  claim  that 
""assault  upon  white  women  by  negro  men"  is  the 
crime  of  the  "New  Negro'  we  shall  endeavor  to  make 
plain  first ;  then  we  shall  offer  the  proposed  "Rational 
Remedies." 

Suggestion,  that  subtlest  of  all  agencies  influencing, 
if  not  wholly  dominating  the  human  mind — dual  in 
its  nature — when  rightly  employed,  is  a  great  and 
moving  power  for  good  to  the  subject  receiving  it; 
and,  through  the  subject,  to  everything  with  which  it 
comes  in  touch,  as  illustrated  in  the  career  of  the  col- 
ored race,  from  the  first  importation  of  a  slave  to  the 
emancipation  of  the  race. 

In  striking,  and  sometimes  alarming,  contrast  are 
the  results  of  misdirected  suggestion,  or  wrong  sug- 
gestion of  any  form,  whether  direct  of  indirect;  con- 
scious or  unconscious ;  intentional  or  unintentional. 
And  to  this  influence  of  wrong  suggestion  we  shall 
attempt  to  trace  the  source  of  the  problem,  at  first 
sectional  in  its  nature,  but  now  involving  the  whole 
nation. 

And  it  may  be  well  to  reiterate  the  claim  before 
made,  that  to  the  alien  element  that  overran  the  South 
immediately  after  the  Civil  War,  and  the  influences 
that  element  set  agoing  in  the  minds  of  the  negroes, 


150    A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM. 

more  than  to  all  else  is  traceable  the  trouble  with  the 
negro  of  to-day. 

During  the  reconstruction  period  in  the  South,, 
when  the  Federal  authorities  at  Washington  were  en- 
gaged in  amending  the  Constitution,  passing  civil 
rights  bills,  and  otherwise  working  assiduously  to 
bring  about  the  fullest  equality  of  races  (some  of  these 
same  leaders  illustrating  it  in  their  private  life)  and 
their  "officers  of  the  line"  were  on  the  ground  preach- 
ing this  doctrine  to  the  negroes,  the  very  atmosphere 
in  which  the  recently  liberated  slaves  moved  and 
which  they  breathed,  was  surcharged  with  the  theme 
of  race  equality,  and  suggestions  of  future  elevation 
ranging  from  "eating  at  the  white  folk's  table"  to 
amalgamation  of  the  races,  and  even  to  a  supremacy 
of  the  negro,  were  inhaled  with  every  breath  by  the 
negro  youth  of  the  day,  as  well  as  the  elders  of  his 
people.  While  the  fathers  among  them  were  less  sus- 
ceptible to  the  infection,  by  virtue  of  a  lifetime  of 
positive  direct  counter  suggestion,  minds  of  the  youth 
of  the  day  were  free  and  open  to  take  in  and  assimi- 
late the  poison  of  the  suggestions  so  assiduously  sown- 
by  alien  political  emissaries  of  the  powers  at  Wash- 
ington, and  so  faithfully  taught  in  the  schools  by  white 
men  and  women  from  the  North,  who,  also,  main- 
tained these  social  relations  toward  the  negro  in  their 
private  lives,  so  far  as  the  laws  of  the  land  would  per- 
mit and  publicly,  so  far  as  Southern  sentiment  wouLI 
tolerate. 

Subsidiary  to  the  work  of  the  agitator,  was  the 
mother's  influence  in  implanting  these  seeds  of  social 
equality  suggestions  in  the  minds  of  her  children.  But 
a  great  degree  of  tolerance  should  be  employed  in 
considering  this  phase  of  the  subject.  The  mother- 
heart  of  the  slave  woman  must  have  thrilled  with  un- 
wonted emotions  of  joy  at  the  thought  that  the  dawr* 


A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM.  151 

of  liberty  had  opened  upon  her  race  while  her  off- 
spring were  just  entering  upon  life,  and  even  if  she 
had  passed  by  youth  and  middle  life  in  slavery,  she 
had  the  happy  consciousness  that,  in  her  declining 
years,  the  home  of  a  freeman  would  be  to  her  a  shel- 
ter, and  out  of  it  she  would  be  borne  to  her  grave. 
This,  she  knew,  was  a  reality;  and  with  the  reality 
had  come  the  promise  of  higher  ascension  in  the  scale 
of  social  life  for  her  children ;  they  were  "good  as  any 
white  children" — better  than  "po'  white  trash."  That 
she  should  strengthen  these  suggestions  by  every 
means  possible,  in  the  minds  of  her  children,  was 
natural,  and  she  did  more,  the  infant  of  the  day  drew 
the  inspiration  from  the  mother's  breast  with  ever/ 
drop  of  its  milk  food.  And,  while  there  were  doubts 
and  misgivings  in  the  mind  of  the  intelligent  colored 
man,  he  hesitated  to  discountenance  these  sugges- 
tions. His  intelligence  suggested  strongly  to  his  mind 
that  the  only  logical  outcome  of  the  policy  of  recon- 
structionists  at  Washington  was  social  equality,  mis- 
cegenation and  amalgamation.  Of  course,  this  car- 
ried with  it  a  terrible  conviction ;  it  meant  bloodshed 
as  well ;  but  were  not  the  Federal  armies  behind  the 
movement?  thought  he. 

Amid  these  surroundings  the  young  negro  began 
life.  Schools  all  over  the  South  were  established  and 
with  their  establishment  every  influence  that  could  be 
conceived  was  brought  to  play  upon  the  mind  of  ne- 
gro children  to  create  the  impression  that  they,  as 
beneficiaries  of  the  school  privileges,  were  indebted 
solely  to  their  Northern  white  friends  for  them ;  that 
the  Southern  whites  were  not  only  antagonistic  to  ne- 
gro education,  but  were  hostile  to  everything  that 
tended  to  the  betterment  of  the  race.  And,  in  many 
instances,  the  jealousy  of  the  white  people  of  the  ne- 
gro's advancement  was  charged  on  the  ground  that 


152    A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM. 

they  feared  the  negro's  development  would  result 
finally  in  the  superiority  of  the  negro  race ;  thus,  the 
suggestion  of  negro  supremacy  obtained  a  strong  po- 
sition in  the  minds  of  many  negroes.  How  familiar 
became  the  claim  that  "the  bottom  rail"  would  soon 
be  "on  top." 

In  all  of  these  things  the  negro  felt  that  the  people 
at  the  North  were  in  full  sympathy  and  accord  with  all 
that  was  being  done.  That  the  policy  pursued  by  the 
Johnson  administration,  for  the  establishment  of  a 
social  scale  in  the  South  that  recognized  and  tolerated 
no  distinction  on  account  of  race,  color,  etc.,  met  the 
unqualified  approval  of  every  Northern  citizen.  But, 
if  such  was  the  case,  then  (and  we  are  not  disposed  to 
believe  it)  there  came  in  due  time  a  revulsion  of  feel- 
ing. There  came  a  time  when  the  mismanagement  of 
the  misguided  extremists  at  the  North,  and  the  false 
and  (sometimes)  incendiary  suggestions  of  their  emis- 
saries at  the  South,  became  apparent.  It  was  when 
the  habitation  of  the  black  race  was  no  longer  circum- 
scribed to  the  country  south  of  the  Ohio  river.  When 
he  had  gained  a  footing  more  or  less  well  established 
in  almost  all  of  the  States  in  the  Union.  Then  it  was 
that  the  people  of  the  whole  country  began  to  under- 
stand the  situation,  and  sentiment  became  changed. 

Growing  up  in  this  atmosphere  of  training  the  New 
Negro  was  wholly  unprepared  to  meet  the  actual  real- 
ities that  the  future  developed.  Social  elevation  did 
not  come  to  him,  along  with  the  education  he  had  re- 
ceived. His  black  skin  was,  as  much  as  ever,  the 
mark  of  inferiority  of  race.  Years  passed,  he  became 
a  man  physically.  Instead  of  an  open  field  in  the  so- 
cial realm,  he  was  as  much  circumscribed  as  ever;  the 
white  man  had  maintained  that  superiority  which,  by 
every  right  vested  in  a  superior  race,  he  claimed  was 
his.  Public  sentiment  at  the  same  time  at  the  North 


A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM.  153 

was  overwhelmingly  with  the  Southern  white  men. 
(although  it  was  some  years  later  before  it  became  ac- 
tive), and  the  negro  realized  in  the  situation  as  it  was 
that  the  foolish  fallacies  implanted  in  his  young  mind 
were  but  bubbles  that  burst  before  the  blasts  of  reason 
in  later  years.  And,  with  this  revelation,  came  a  most 
dangerous  suggestion.  It  was,  that  the  negro  was 
being  robbed  of  a  right  that,  according  to  suggestions 
in  a  thousand  ways  imparted,  he  had  come  to  regard 
as  his ;  that,  on  account  of  the  duplicity  of  the  white 
race,  he  still  occupied  an  inferior  position,  and  never 
once  admitting  to  himself  that  former  suggestions 
were  perhaps  erroneous.  And,  brooding  over  these 
imaginary  wrongs  (being  unable  rather  than  unwil- 
ling to  apply  the  light  of  reason),  the  deadly  and 
damning  suggestion  of  the  employment  of  force  to 
accomplish  a  right  of  which  sentiment  robs  him  and 
not  law  forbids  him,  was  implanted  in  his  mind.  We 
say  "his  mind"  advisedly,  for  the  outcropping  does 
not  by  any  means  discover  to  view  the  extent  of  the 
existence  of  these  dark  suggestions.  They  are  mani- 
fested upon  the  streets,  along  the  highways,  around 
the  homes — everywhere — throughout  the  South,  daily, 
and  in  an  unmistakable  manner.  These  manifesta- 
tions are  not  unnoticed  by  the  whites,  and  doubtless 
many  a  tragedy  is  averted,  and  many  a  dark  crime  is 
forestalled  because  they  are  noted.  Lack  of  oppor- 
tunity often,  and  lack  of  brute  courage  sometimes, 
and  an  increasing  watchfulness  all  the  time,  has  pre- 
served the  honor  of  far  more  white  women  of  the 
country  than  have  suffered  the  loss  of  it  at  the  hands 
of  the  rapist. 

SUGGESTION  AS  A  SOLUTION. 

We  come  now  to  consider  a  solution  for  this  most 
absorbing  problem  with  a  degree  of  satisfaction  on 


154         A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM. 

account  of  the  fact  that  the  change  of  sentiment  re- 
garding the  race  question,  which  has  been  very 
marked,  even  radical,  during  the  past  few  years  in  cer- 
tain sections,  will  contribute  much  towards  that  solu- 
tion. During  recent  years  the  people  of  the  other  sec- 
tions of  the  Union  have  had  a  meed  of  the  experience 
in  dealing  with  the  rapist  negro,  that  the  South  has  so 
long  contended  with.  The  country  at  large  has  come 
to  a  knowledge  of  the  situation  in  a  sense  most  cal- 
culated to  carry  conviction.  The  sojourn  of  the  ne- 
groes at  <tihe  North  (and  by  this  term  is  meant  all  sec- 
tions before  unused  to  the  negro  as  he  is  known  at 
the  South),  has  proven  a  revelation  to  the  masses. 
Seeing  him  as  he  is  has  been  a  convincing  proof  of 
his  unfitness  for  social  equality.  The  horror  at  the 
thought  of  miscegenation  and  amalgamation  experi- 
enced only  at  the  South  at  first,  is  shared  now  through- 
out the  country.  The  expediency  of  it  is  not  only  de- 
nied at  jthe  North,  but  the  proposition  is  revolting 
alike  to  the  respectable  white  element  everywhere. 

The  formula  of  the  remedy  for  the  malady  once 
agreed  upon,  its  faithful  application  and  patience  will 
bring  the  desired  results.  For,  it  may  be  well  borne 
in  mind,  that  the  disease  not  being  at  an  acute  stage,, 
but  of  a  chronic  type,  it  can  not  be  overcome  in  a  day,, 
but  will  require  time  for  its  eradication. 

First,  as  an  all-important  basis :  If,  as  we  have 
shown,  suggestion  has  played  so  important  a  part  in 
shaping  the  destiny  of  the  negro  race,  figuring  in 
every  phase  of  his  career,  from  the  semi-savage  state 
until  this  day,  then,  through  the  same  medium,  much 
toward  the  solution  of  the  problem  may  be  accom- 
plished. 

While  the  problem  has  become  a  national  one,  in  a 
strict  sense,  it  must  be  admitted  that  upon  the  South 
mainly,  devolves  the  responsibility  of  a  solution.  This 


A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM.  155 

may  appear  paradoxical,  taken  in  connection  with  the 
claim,  heretofore  made,  that  to  northern  sentiment 
and  northern  interference  with  local  affairs  was 
chargeable  the  present  status  of  the  race.  But  in  our 
support  of  that  claim,  the  distinction  between  the 
two  was  made  clear,  and  the  change  of  sentiment  a': 
the  North  has  not  only  removed  all  'support  of  the 
claim  to  social  equality  for  the  negro,  but  has  gone  a 
long  way  toward  creating  a  strong  counter  suggestion 
in  the  mind  of  the  New  Negro  upon  that  subject.  In 
fact,  there  is  less  of  a  desire  upon  the  part  of  the  re- 
spectable element  of  the  race  for  social  equality  than 
ever  before.  The  conviction,  once  so  thoroughly  en- 
trenched in  the  mind  of  the  negro,  that  such  relations 
should  not  exist,  and  never  eradicated,  but  rather 
overshadowed,  for  the  time  being,  is  rapidly  reassert- 
ing itself  and  claiming  recognition — how  ?  Auto-sug- 
gestively. 

One  of  the  first  steps  employed  in  furtherance  of  the 
radical  plans  adopted  for  the  reconstruction  of  the 
Southern  States,  was  the  wholesale  enfranchisement 
of  the  negro,  without  regard  to  his  fitness  for  the  ex- 
ercise of  suffrage.  Subsequent  history  has  demon- 
strated that  this  was  a  grievous  error,  and  his  right 
of  suffrage  should  have  been  admitted  only  after  he 
had  demonstrated  such  qualifications,  moral  and  men- 
tal, as  would  enable  him  to  exercise  it  intelligently. 
This  would  have  been  fair  to  all  classes  of  the  race. 
The  negro  who  possessed  such  qualifications  at  the 
outset  would  have  been  enfranchised,  while  the  igno- 
rant and  incompetent  element  so  largely  in  the  ma- 
jority, would  have  been  barred  until  such  time  as  he 
was  enabled  to  subscribe  to  the  conditions  of  quali- 
fication. Had  this  been  done,  the  suggestions  of  right 
deportment,  and  high  moral  snd  mentnl  attainment, 
in  other  words,  the  suggestion  of  good  citizenship 


156    A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM. 

would  have  been  paramount  in  the  mind  of  the  negro, 
instead  of  the  seriously  erroneous  suggestions  he  did 
receive  in  this  connection,  to  which  we  have  referred. 
But  the  proposition  to  repeal  the  voting  clause  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  relative  to  the  ne- 
gro, at  this  late  day,  is  as  manifestly  wrong  as  the  act 
was  erroneous  at  first. 

First,  it  would  work  a  hardship  upon  a  strong  ele- 
ment of  the  race  who,  by  thrift  and  enterprise,  have 
property  rights  at  stake,  and  until  more  of  the  race 
not  so  fortunate,  perhaps,  but  whose  intelligence  and 
learning,  as  well  as  their  moral  status,  entitle  them 
to  recognition  as  good  citizens ;  and,  second,  because 
every  State  in  the  Union  enjoys  the  rights  necessary 
to  regulate  suffrage  by  legislation,  and  all  of  them  af- 
fected do  enact  such  laws  as  are  necessary  to  regulate 
the  franchise  of  its  citizens,  "without  regard  to  race, 
color,"  etc.,  it  is  true,  but  quite  effective  in  eliminat- 
ing the  incompetent  voters,  both  white  and  colored, 
Disfranchisement,  therefore,  is  not  expedient. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  intelligent  negro  writers  and 
speakers  keep  up  such  a  fusilade  of  attack  upon  white 
people  for  alleged  suppression  of  the  negro  ballot, 
•when  their  common  sense  teaches  them  that  such  is 
not  the  case.  There  is  no  effort  on  the  part  of  the 
whites  to  suppress  a  single  legal  vote  of  the  race  in 
any  regular  election.  Democratic  primary,  or  nomi- 
nating elections  in  practice  in  the  South,  are  not 
"regular"  legal  elections,  and  if  the  negro  is  excluded 
in  these,  so  is  his  white  brother  of  the  Republican 
party.  And  these  always  have  the  right  to  bring  out 
a  Republican  ticket  and  contest  in  the  election  proper, 
the  election  of  the  ticket  endorsed  by  the  opposition. 
These  are  political  party  questions  and  not  race  ques- 
tions. The  negro  is  simply  afflicted  with  the  weaker 
party  in  politics.  And  this,  from  a  choice  made  years 


A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM.  157 

ago,  and  it  is  unfair  to  the  weaker  element  of  his  race 
that  these  practices  are  resorted  to  by  his  intellectually 
stronger  brother;  for  they  are  taken  seriously  by  these 
auditors,  and  if  the  applause  they  receive  is  gratify- 
in^,  they  should  understand  it  is  at  great  cost  to  the 
cause  they  represent.  Suggestion  of  a  damaging 
character  is  begotten — half  suppressed  truth,  becomes 
blatant  falsehood.  Open,  fair  dealing  with  all  ques- 
tions by  negro  leaders  is  demanded  by  every  sense  of 
right. 

The  negro's  status  before  the  law  is  wrongly  dealt 
with  by  this  same  element.  Every  intelligent  being 
shows  that  the  courts  of  the  country,  from  the  desk- 
room  notary  publics,  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  are  open  to  him,  and  legal  counsel  is 
his,  upon  demand,  before  any  one  of  these  tribunals. 
The  preaching  of  negro  oppression  by  the  courts 
should  be  restrained,  if  necessary,  by  the  broadening 
of  jurisdiction  in  contempt  proceedings,  so  as  to  take 
in  the  agitator,  and  thus  suppress  a  very  strong  and 
hurtful  suggestion. 

A  recent  enactment  of  a  very  stringent  vagrancy 
law  by  the  Georgia  Legislature  was  vigorously  at- 
tacked by  a  leading  Atlanta  negro  preacher,  on  the 
ground  that  it  was  "aimed  at"  the  colored  race ;  when 
he  well  knew  that  not  a  syllable  of  the  act  applied  to 
'the  negro  that  did  not  mean  as  much  to  the  white 
race.  That,  if  it  affected  the  negro  more  seriously 
than  it  did  the  whites,  it  was  because  there  were  more 
negro  vagrants  than  white  vagrants.  Therefore,  the 
course  of  the  preacher  was  attacked  in  the  columns  of 
a  newspaper  and  his  utterances  were  given  wide  pub- 
licity among  the  negroes.  The  more  strongly  to  be 
condemed  are  these  utterances,  because  they  were  so 
widely  at  variance  with  the  spirit  of  the  occasion, 
which  was  a  gathering  of  leading  white  and  colored 


158    A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM. 

men  engaged  in  the  discussion  of  ways  and  means 
for  the  elevation  and  betterment  of  his  race ;  a  notable 
and  leading  spirit  present  being  his  own  church 
bishop.  The  closing  of  dance-halls,  where  vice  and 
immorality  prevailed  among  his  race,  was  as  strongly 
protested  against  on  this  same  occasion  by  the 
preacher,  because,  he  claimed,  it  was  the  oppression 
of  the  negro,  and  it  abridged  his  rights.  This  in  the 
face  of  the  fact  that  reputable  people  of  his  own  race 
joined  in  invoking  the  law's  action  on  the  grounds  of 
it  being  a  nuisance  and  a  menace  to  the  peace  and 
good  order  of  the  city. 

While  it  is  not  probable  that  there  were  present 
many  of  the  class  that  could  be  seriously  affected  by 
the  preacher's  inopportune  and  foolish  remarks,  it  is 
true  that  a  newspaper  comment  was  a  vehicle  that 
-carried  them  broadcast,  and  the  damage  done  was 
serious  and  far-reaching,  counteracting  much  of  the 
real  good  accomplished  at  the  series  of  meetings,  of 
which  this  was  one. 

What  a  revolution  of  sentiment  the  cessation  of 
these  and  like  practices  would  work !  What  a  strong 
•current  of  counter-suggestion  would  be  set  in  motion 
if  these  same  gifted  writers  and  eloquent  speakers 
turned  their  efforts  into  more  rational  and  conserva- 
tive channels ! 

In  the  South,  at  least,  the  rapist  in  almost  all  in- 
stances of  outbreak,  comes  from  the  ranks  of  the 
vagrant — the  lowest  element  of  the  negro  race.  The 
rural  districts  are  his  field  of  operations,  and  he  wan- 
ders through  the  country,  ostensibly  in  search  of  em- 
ployment, but  in  reality  bent  only  upon  mischief.  He 
does  not  hesitate  at  theft,  burglary,  arson,  or  criminal 
outrage — whatever  seems  to  promise  success,  even 
murder,  if  necessary  to  accomplish  any  of  these  de- 
signs, or  to  cover  up  a  crime.  This  is  the  rule ;  oc- 


A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM.  159 

casionally  he  is  one  well  known  in  the  community,  and 
often  he  is  one  of  the  migratory  class,  whose  stay  on 
some  man's  plantation  has  been  of  a  sufficient  dura- 
tion to  localize  him  enough  to  be  regarded  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  community,  but  which  stay  was  only  Ion-; 
enough  to  enable  him  to  accomplish  some  deep  an.l 
devilish  purpose. 

The  remedy  for  this  class  is:  First,  clean  towns  and 
cities  where  such  low  resorts  as  afford  them  shelter, 
can  not  exist;  strict  laws  against  idleness,  and  a  no- 
madic life,  and  fearless  execution  of  those  laws.  Sec- 
ond, the  respectable  working  colored  man  and  woman 
should  discountenance  these  people  in  their  worthless 
manner  of  living.  Let  these  understand  that  they  can 
no  longer  expect  shield  or  support  from  this  better 
class,  and  the  effect  would  be  marvelous.  It  is  inex- 
plicable, but  true,  that  it  is  the  disposition  of  negroes 
generally,  to  aid  the  criminal  of  the  race  to  escape, 
rather  than  to  hand  him  over  to  justice.  It  is  a  well- 
known  fact  that  it  is  almost  impossible  for  a  white 
man  to  go  into  any  quarter  of  a  city  where  negroes 
live,  and  ascertain  the  whereabouts  of  a  negro,  though 
he  may  inquire  of  those  living  in  the  immediate  vicin- 
ity, even  of  next-door  neighbors.  Negroes  will  shield 
the  worst  criminal  of  their  race  from  detection  am! 
arrest,  though  a  stranger,  while  the  white  man  wiU 
hand  his  next-door  neighbor  over  to  justice  when 
implicated  in  crime. 

We  have  in  the  foregoing  an  illustration  of  a  sug- 
gestion implanted  during  the  slave  period,  and  doub*:- 
less  at  an  early  date.  But  the  negroes  should  put  away 
those  old  slave-time  customs  of  shielding  the  "run- 
away nigger."  How  tenacious  the  hold  of  a  sugges- 
tion when  once  rooted  in  the  human  mind! 

The  law  to  put  down  and  drive  out  the  loafer,  and 
suppress  his  rendezvous,  and  the  respectable  negroes 


160    A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM. 

upholding  that  law,  by  every  suggestion  to  the  va- 
grant, that  he  may  no  longer  look  for  or  expect  recog- 
nition and  aid  in  his  manner  of  living,  are  the  coun- 
try's strongest  levers  for  uprooting  this  incubus  on 
society. 

Then  there  is  that  other  element  of  the  rapist  negro, 
less  numerous,  but  dangerous,  because,  under  the 
guise  of  respectability,  the  negro  servant  who,  by  vir- 
tue of  his  domestic  employment,  is  constantly  in  con- 
tact with  the  women  of  the  home.  Unfortunately, 
these  are  often  less  careful  of  his  presence  than  they 
should  be.  The  old  slavery-day  customs  of  careless 
indifference  to  the  presence  of  the  morning  fire-build- 
er in  female  apartments,  and  like  opportunities  for  ob- 
servation of  the  persons  of  the  white  Mistress  and  the 
young  Misses  of  the  home,  may  have  been  responsible 
in  a  far  greater  measure  for  the  latter  day  crime  than 
it  would  be  pleasant  to  admit.  The  suggestion  of 
safety  then  implanted  in  the  white  Mistress'  mind  has 
been  handed  down  even  to  the  present  day,  and  it  is  a 
fact  that  there  is  too  much  indifference  yet  existing 
along  this  line,  in  the  face  of  the  dangers  that  menace 
the  safety  of  white  women.  It  is  unfortunate,  and  the 
source  of  much  harm,  that  the  Southern  Mistress 
failed  to  recognize  that  the  freedman  was  not  her  slave, 
but  her  former  slave,  and  to  treat  him  as  such.  But 
instead,  old  customs  prevailed,  and  while  the  freed- 
man maintained  his  integrity  as  a  rule  (many  did  not), 
the  new  negro  received  and  cherished  strong  sug- 
gestions from  this  source. 

Remove  the  contact,  often  too  close,  in  the  home  ; 
in  business  relations ;  in  close-seated  vehicles  "buiit 
for  two";  on  the  farm,  where  too  often  girls  and 
young  women  "hoe  their  rows,"  or  pick  cotton  along- 
side the  negro  man — sometimes  wholly  at  his  mercy, 
(and  often  becoming  his  victim) — and  separate  the 


A  SOLUTION  OP  THE  NEdRO  PROBLEM.     16 1 

races  in  factories  and  workshops ;  let  the  negro  jani- 
tor go  from  schools  and  colleges  where  girls  are  in 
attendance,  and  female  teachers  are  employed;  in  a 
word,  let  Southern  people  recognize  in  the  "New  Ne- 
gro" a  person  far  removed  from  the  darkey  of  other 
days,  and  a  suggestion  that  breeds  deadliest  poison 
in  the  mind  of  this  new  creature  will  be  removed. 

It  is  this  class  of  negroes  most  subject  to  the  sug- 
gestion begotten  by  disapppointment  in  the  develop- 
ment of  race  conditions,  that  the  race  has  been  robbed 
of  rights  by  unfair  methods,  and  he  is  impelled  by  a 
desire  to  possess  and  drag  down  the  object  of  his  lust 
to  his  own  low  level,  not  only  by  lutsful  desires,  but  by 
a  spirit  of  revengeful  hatred. 

Race  separation  upon  any  conceivable  plan,  al- 
though strongly  advocated  by  a  few,  among  whom  is 
a  leading  negro  bishop  of  the  African  Methodist  Epis- 
copal Church,  and  a  Southern  newspaper  editor  of 
note  as  a  platform  speaker,  seems  too  chimerical  to 
consider  as  a  remedy  in  this  connection.  The  negro 
does  not  wish  to  leave  the  country — not  many  of  his 
race — and  there  are  no  legal  avenues  open  to  deporta- 
tion ;  and  unless  he  could  be  legally  deported,  or  could 
be  induced  to  voluntarily  clear  our  shores,  in  a  body, 
the  proposition  fails  of  materialization. 

From  the  first  proposition  there  is  little  to  expect. 
And  as  regards  the  latter,  an  incident  illustrative  of 
the  negro's  resourcefulness  in  expediencies,  aptly  sets 
forth  his  position  in  the  premises :  An  old  negro  who 
was  serving  a  term  in  prison  for  the  offense  of  horse- 
stealing,  was  constantly  upbraiding  his  fellow- prison- 
ers for  their  deeds,  which  had  brought  them  into  pris- 
on. He  was  particularly  abusive  of  a  certain  one  who 
happened  to  be  serving  a  term  for  perhaps  the  same 
offense  as  his  own.  After  submitting  to  a  round  of 
abuse,  one  day,  more  severe  than  usual,  the  fellow- 

11  ns 


162         A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM. 

prisoner  stopped  the  old  man  and  said :  "Now,  look 
here,  I  admit  you  are  right ;  my  crime  was  a  bad  one, 
but  what  did  you  come  here  for?"  This  was  sudden 
and  unexpected,  but  the  old  fellow  was  equal  to  the 
demands  upon  him,  and  he  replied:  "Didn't  come 
here ;  white  folks  fetch  me  here." 

With  the  negro  here  to  stay,  whatever  is  accom- 
plished in  the  way  of  a  solution  of  this  vexed  problem 
must,  to  prove  successful,  have  his  co-operation.  In 
the  pulpit,  in  the  public  prints,  in  politics  and  at  home, 
a  demand  is  upon  him  to  bend  his  intelligent  efforts 
in  the  direction  of  bringing  the  weaker  element  of 
his  race  up  to  his  own  level  of  moral  and  intellectual 
standing.  The  hurtful  and  vicious  suggestions  that 
have  so  strongly  figured  in  the  past,  must  be  met  and 
overcome  by  counter-suggestions. 

The  intensely  religious  nature  of  the  negro  is  an 
excellent  avenue  through  which  to  inculcate  the  re- 
ligious principle  that  demands  good  citizenship.  The 
Divine  command :  "Let  every  soul  be  subject  unto  the 
Higher  Powers,"  carries  with  it  no  qualification.  We 
should  not  "despise  those  in  authority."  To  cease  from 
abuse  of  governmental  institutions  and  men  in  au- 
thority would  convey  strong  suggestion.  In  a  word, 
counter-suggestion  that  will  stop  decline,  arrest  and 
restrain  the  vicious  before  actual  outbreak,  is  the  hope. 

Neither  social  nor  political  relations  of  a  close  na- 
ture are  desirable  to  the  intellectual  colored  man. 
The  stamp  that  differentiates  the  races  is  as  apparent 
to  the  negro  as  to  the  white  man.  There  is  a  rela- 
tion, however,  that  is  most  desirable  to  both  the  fair- 
minded  negro  and  the  honest  white  man.  It  is  a  cor- 
dial, neighborly  relation,  that  admits  of  free,  open 
business  intercourse,  without  any  apprehension  on  the 
part  of  either  of  unfair  methods  being  employed. 
Upon  the  white  man  more  than  upon  the  black,  rests 


A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM.     163 

the  responsibility.  He  is  in  position  to  invite  this,  by 
indirect  suggestion,  which  must,  and  surely  will,  flow 
out  of  earnest  effort  upon  his  part.  Let  the  negro  un- 
derstand that  he  will  receive  honest  compensation  for 
services  rendered,  and  how  readily  he  will  respond ! 
He  is  so  constituted;  his  confidence  once  won,  his 
faithfulness  is  as  strong  as  his  emotional  nature  can 
make  it.  Let  the  negro  understand  that  the  white 
man  is  not  jealous  of  his  attainments.  The  fact  that 
he  does  favor  education  among  the  race  is  strongly 
suggested  by  his  willingness  to  pay  taxes  for  that  pur- 
pose. 

There  is  an  element  that  has  received  no  notice  dur- 
ing this  discussion,  because  his  influence  is  of  no  ef- 
fect, pro  or  con,  upon  the  race  problem ;  it  is  the  low 
white  class.  His  vacillating  and  unstable  character 
robs  him  of  any  influence  among  the  intelligent,  up- 
right citizens  of  either  race,  and  the  law  that  restrains 
and  punishes  the  vicious  blacks,  operates  with  equal 
force  in  his  case. 

The  intelligent  and  upright  people  of  the  two  races 
must  meet  this  question,  each  in  his  particular  sphere, 
and  honest  effort  and  patient  waiting  upon  right  sug- 
gestion will  bring  about  a  happy  solution. 

THE  NEGRO  NOT  A  BEAST. 

A  solution  of  the  negro  problem  psychologically  con- 
sidered has,  without  any  special  effort,  proved  that  the 
negro  is  not  "a  beast,"  notwithstanding  an  effort  has 
been  made  to  prove  otherwise  by  distorting  the  Bible 
with  disconnected  sentences  and  phrases  which  are 
used  for  Biblical  proof.  The  whole  religious  world 
may  hide  its  face  in  shame  and  disgust  at  the  thought 
that  any  one  should  be  so  sacrilegious  as  to  try  to  use 
the  Bible  for  such  an  unhallowed  purpose. 

As  we  have  pointed  out  in  the  first  part  of  this  psy- 


164         A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGKO  PROBLEM. 

chological  treatise,  "every  human  being  is  endowed 
with  a  dual  mind,  namely,  objective  and  subjective. 
The  objective,  or  reasoning  mind,  is  controlled  by  the 
five  senses  (seeing,  hearing,  feeling,  etc.),  and  is  the 
outgrowth  of  man's  physical  necessities.  It  is  his 
guide  in  his  struggles  with  material  environments. 
The  objective  mind  has  for  its  highest  function,  rea- 
soning. The  subjective  mind  takes  cognizance  of  its 
environment  by  means  independent  of  the  five  phys- 
ical senses.  It  perceives  by  intuition.  It  is  the  seat 
of  emotions ;  it  is  the  storehouse  of  memory.  This 
duality  of  the  mind  renders  man  susceptible  to  all 
kinds  of  suggestions  known  to  the  realm  of  psychol- 

ogy." 

If  we  wish  to  draw  an  analogy  from  the  Bible,  it 
would  be  more  in  keeping  with  the  eternal  fitness  of 
things  to  show  that  the  internal  evidences  of  the  Bible 
are  a  greater  and  more  conclusive  argument  of  its  own 
authenticity  than  the  evidences  deduced  by  natural 
theology  ,or  by  prophecy,  or  by  reasoning,  so  with  the 
negro  it  did  not  seem  necessary  to  prove  that  he  was 
a  man,  or  of  the  genus  homo,  because  this  is  not  only 
an  admitted  fact,  but  it  is  a  self-evident  fact. 

In  the  chapter  on  his  semi-savage  state,  where  he 
is  viewed  in  his  lowest  mental  development,  it  is 
clearly  shown  that  he  is  highly  susceptible  to  sugges- 
tion, under  the  same  psychological  laws  as  all  other 
human  beings,  and  by  the  immutable  laws  of  sug- 
gestion, he  has  made  progress  along  the  lines  of  men- 
tal development.  His  objective  mind  has  increased 
in  proportion  that  his  physical  necessities  have  dic- 
tated. His  subjective  mind  seems  to  predominate  in 
his  semi-savage  state,  owing  to  the  fact  that  his  rea- 
soning faculties  were  weak  for  want  of  cultivation  and 
a  chance  to  develop.  Hence,  the  proverbial  intuition 


A  SOLUTION  OF  THE  NEGRO  PROBLEM.     165 

of  the  old  darkey,  which  is  often  imitated  by  writers, 
and  quoted  as  "Uncle  Dick's  Philosophy." 

Since  the  negro  has  had  an  opportunity  to  cultivate 
his  objective  or  reasoning  mind,  like  all  other  human 
beings,  he  does  not  depend  so  much  on  his  intuition 
or  subjective  mind,  but  is  able  to  employ  his  reason- 
ing faculties  according  to  the  same  laws  that  govern 
his  Caucasian  friend.  It  is  under  this  law  that  the 
negro  is  capable,  if  not  hindered  by  wrong  suggestion, 
to  attain  to  still  higher  development,  mentally,  morally 
and  religiously.  If  too  much  is  expected  of  him,  the 
responsibilities  will  have  a  tendency  to  dethrone  his 
reason  from  the  fact  that  he  is  only  in  the  primary  or 
undeveloped  mental  stage. 

It  is  hoped  that  all  good  people,  both  white  and 
black,  will  realize  that  a  great  problem  confronts 
them,  and  in  proportion  with  the  right  suggestion,  as 
given  to  the  weaker  race,  only  a  few  years  removed 
from  savagery,  in  that  proportion  will  the  problem  be 
solved. 


II 


